DEPARTMENT OF SPORT, ARTS AND CULTURE ASSISTS IN UNVEILING A TOMBSTONE MEMORIAL IN HONOUR OF VUSAMAZULU CREDO MUTWA.

Northern Cape Department of Sport, Arts and Culture together with the Credo Mutwa Foundation will be unveiling a memorial in honour of the legendary Sanusi Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa at Magojaneng Cemetery on Saturday, 23 July 2022. The ceremony will be followed by a commemoration of Credo Mutwa's life at his Homestead at Magojaneng Village, Kuruman in the John Taolo Gaetsewe District. The ceremony is scheduled to be attended by Head of Department Mr. Oupa Phiri, the leadership of John Taolo Gaetsewe District and Ga-segonyana Local Municipalities and other dignitaries.

Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa was declared a Living Legend by the National Department of Sport, Arts and Culture in 2019, catapulting him into the highest honour bestowed by the sector on some of the greatest protectors and campaigners of African origin. His indigenous wisdom and prophetic abilities have placed him in his own league. He could not be matched nor compared in the various works and exploits he has shown his mettle, from poetry, traditional aspects, prophesising, arts and craft.

The Northern Cape government through its efforts to bestow honour and dignity to his work and legacy partnered with the National Lotteries Commission to build a Museum and a Library next to his homestead in Kuruman. This was further bolstered by the Provincial Government strides through the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture when we renovated his house, ensured the operationalization of both the Museum and the Library built adjacent to his homestead.

When he passed away on the 20th March 2020, he was given a befitting send-off through a category 3 Provincial State Funeral, as well as attending to his family wish to be honoured through the procurement of a dignified tombstone all costs assumed by the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture.

Baba Credo Mutwa was born in the South Coast of Kwazulu Natal in 21 July 1921. He moved to live with his father in Johannesburg in his youth when his biological mother passed on. He moved back to live with his grandmother in Kwa-Zulu Natal when his calling to be a traditional healer surfaced. He received training both in Kwa-Zulu-Natal and Swaziland.

As a Traditional Healer uBaba moved back to Gauteng and started a family while living in Soweto. Baba received a piece of land in the sixties from the Opperheimer family where he established his model African village. Baba Mutwa constructed huts and other houses to represent the ways which different African communities, from Zulu, Sotho and Arabs build their homesteads.

It was during this period that Baba wrote his epic Book titled: Indaba My Children. In the book Baba Mutwa is educating people about the way of life of African People from the cradle to the grave.

uBaba Mutwa moved from Soweto in 1976 and established another cultural village outside Mahikeng in the North West. In the cultural village in the North West Baba Mutwa continued with his theme of depicting the way of life of African communities through their homebuilding.

He finally moved from the North West and settled in Magojaneng Village in the Northern Cape where he got recognition for his long and illustrious life. In his lifetime the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture has awarded Credo Mutwa the Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution in preserving the African Cultural Legacy. This was conferred to him in 2018.

 

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 Issued by: Communications Unit

Northern Cape Sport, Arts and Culture Department

Cell: 078 944 0200.

 

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