17/08/2026
WE ARE NOT A PEOPLE WITHOUT A PAST.
There is something deeply painful about growing up in a society where you can slowly begin to feel like your own culture is foreign to you.
We inherit names, languages, traditions, clothing, stories and ways of life from people who came before us, yet somewhere along the way, we were taught to hide pieces of ourselves to fit into a world that told us what normal was supposed to look like.
We learned to dress a certain way to be accepted.
To speak a certain way to be taken seriously.
To look a certain way to be considered modern.
And somehow, our own cultural attire became something we only bring out for weddings, funerals, celebrations and special occasions.
But why?Why should the clothes our grandmothers wore become costumes we wear once or twice a year?
Why should the traditions that carried our ancestors through hardship become something we are embarrassed to practice in everyday life?
We were simply taught to look at it through someone else’s eyes.
Behind every piece of cultural attire is a history. Behind every tradition is a generation that survived long enough to pass something down to us.
And perhaps that is why this matters so much.
Because when we stop wearing our culture, speaking our languages, teaching our children our traditions and telling them where they come from, we don’t just lose clothing.
We slowly lose pieces of ourselves.
We can embrace modernity without abandoning our identity.
We can live in a Westernised world and still proudly say, this is who I am.We can build businesses, pursue education, use technology, travel the world and live modern lives, while still honouring the soil that raised us and the people whose strength made our existence possible.
Our culture should not only appear when there is an invitation.
It should live in us.
Not as a costume.
Not as a performance.
Not as something we are ashamed of.
But as a living, breathing part of who we are.
Because before the world told us who we should become, we already belonged to something.
