Ryan Swano
RCHD Week Celebrates Roots, Culture and Heritage while Addressing The Decolonisation of Africa with a Focus on the Victories at the 1510 Battle of Salt River and the 1896 Battle of Adwa. It also commemorates the 140th anniversary of the Berlin Conference that fomented the multitude of colonial ills, continued exploitation and proxy wars that Africa is still dealing with today.
The mix of Vibrant Celebratory Activities and Serious Issue including these Free Film Screenings needs not be confusing nor should it be boring.
The Inaugural RCHD Week organised by the ADWA Movement injects excitement, fun, a sense of unity and cultural pride into dealing with the serious issue of Decolonisation.
Further below we have all the details of the free film screenings that form part of RCHD Week 2025.
That is aside from all the other events and activities throughout the week that range from ndigenous Knowledge Systems Exhibits to more Film Screening, from Poetry to Jazz, and from Keynote Speakers and Panel Discussions to A Vibrant March led by Rasta Nyahbingi Drum Rhythms, but first a bit of backround on how the Adwa x Salt River Victories Parade evolved into the RCHD Week.
THE ADWA MOVEMENT 10th ANNIVERSARY
The Adwa Movement is a grassroots cultural heritage community established in 2016 that is dedicated to preserving, promoting and restoring Africa’s cultural heritage and anti-colonial history through education, arts & culture, and community-building.
The Adwa x Salt River Victories Parade was established in 2016 with the purpose to celebrate intangible cultural heritage in a conscious and vibrant spirit to create awareness and by making places of memory accessible as a cultural activity. The founder, Adwa movement is a broad-based association of multiple communities and organisations has been partnering with civil society groups and will be hosting the 10th annual Adwa x Salt River Victories Parade Programme with the launch of The First Annual Rooots, Culture, Heritage and Decolonisation Week to continue embuing historical consciousness unto participants, guests and society at large through its cultural heritage preservation and restoration events that enhance heritage community resilience and supports the development of marginalised communities across the continent.
Free Film Screenings & Q&A
Though the first film to be screened is planned for just before the Cape Catacombs Pre-Launch Concert at Trenchtown, the main Film Screening Event will be held on Friday 28 February 2025 at the T H Barry Lecture Hall, Iziko South African Museum, 25 Queen Victoria Road, Cape Town from 13:00 to 16:00. Due to a Limited Number of Seats Available, Booking is Essential (details further below).
With Decolonisation as a central theme of RCHD week 2025, this Film Screening event will moderated by Annelize Kotze. The legacies of colonialism are reflected in the existence of dispossessed grassrootscommunities, and this reality is reflected in the struggles of the people. The screenings will spotlighton critical indigenous praxis in creative spaces. The following questions will be interrogated: How does colonial history shape culture? Are cultural workers aware of this traumatic historical legacy?
The award-winning films below explore themes of land, language and heritage and will be followed by reflective discussion with Filmmakers Kurt Orderson and Adrian Van Wyk of Azania Rizing Productions moderated by Annelize Kotze, the Iziko Museums Curator of Culture and Identity.
We Rise For Our Land
Filmmaker Kurt Orderson, examines the complexities of land struggles in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Mozambique, and Zambia. The film follows rural women who not only cultivate and protect the land but also lead efforts to shape policies, ensuring their voices are central to land-use decisions.
What The Soil Remembers
A community uprooted during the Apartheid regime, making way for an Educational institution that would become synonymous with the foundations of white supremacist ideologies. The film follows a group of elders who light up the screen with their approach to the problem.
The Unseen Ones
The film centers around Leagan Davids, aka Niko10Long, from the township Wesbank, Delft struggling against the high crime rate, substandard schooling and unemployment on the Cape Flats. Niko10long’s lyrics reflect on his life experiences and the reality of injustice and social ills on the Cape Flats in poetic Afrikaans, giving a unique view into a world that often remains unseen unless as a crime focus in news bulletins.
Beauty for Ashes
Set in the harsh desert terrain of Kleinzee in South Africa’s Northern Cape, Beauty for Ashes explores the abandoned diamond mines once controlled by multinational giants De Beers and Anglo American, now reclaimed by local residents in this forgotten town. Amid South Africa’s unemployment crisis, self-organized cooperatives of diggers have taken over these sites, using makeshift tools and ancestral skills passed down from elders—many of whom once worked for these corporations.
Their struggle for survival underscores the urgent need to decolonize natural resources and ties directly to South Africa’s highly contested land expropriation debate.
Limited Seating Means Booking is Essential
RSVP / Enquire: Ras Hein 0847878033
