Scores of young people from various tribes of South Africa descended upon Thohoyandou, in Limpopo to attend this year’s launch of the Indoni King and Queens.
Dressed in their different cultural regalia, young South Africans paraded the streets of Thohoyandou as they celebrated Heritage Day.
Over 15 cultural groups, including Bapedi, Vatsonga,VhaVenda and the Nguni groups showcased their cultural dances in the hope of securing a spot in the Indoni cultural pageant.
Indoni is a movement anchored on the promotion of heritage, particularly among the youth.
The pageant was launched to promote culture and moral regeneration among young people. Some local young people from and around Thohoyandou, say heritage should be respected.
“These days younger people no longer respect their culture they no longer do culture like the old days they think culture and tradition is wrong, they have adapted to the western way, culture heritage implies and also help us to develop and awareness about ourselves.” says
Some Indoni contestants says the pageant assists them in many ways.
One of the contestants says, “I graduated Indoni in 2017 and it was the first time and I won under the Pondo kingdom. I got the bursary and I studied my LLB and last year I completed my nursing last year. Being part of Indoni helped me a lot cause I manage to accept myself and my situation at home so being part of Indoni, I did not gain knowledge about culture but I also gained a family.”
Founder of Indoni, Doctor Nomcebo Mthembu, says the pageant was launched to advocate for the moral regeneration among young people and as a tool to solve social ills.
She addressed scores of young people from different tribes at Indoni beauty pageant.
Mthembu explains, “We live in a society where young people are lost they adapt to different culture so Indoni is saying how can we address the social ills facing us in South Africa teach our young kids who they are and that’s how we solve the social ills by using culture to do that.”
The Indoni finalists will participate in the national finals of the Mr and Miss Cultural South Africa in December.
