A group of fellow travellers and narrators harnessed global icon names and values as they traversed the length and breadth of the Eastern Cape to uncover its rich histories, stories of resilience, cultures, cherished sayings and remembered songs. While travelling, the group encountered diverse heritages, from the legacy of wars spanning over 100 years, to the pure beauty of the province in topography, nature, and culture.The Eastern Cape offers a good example of the triumph and creativity of the human spirit in Africa. The trip was as much an adventure into space as it was into the deeper self. A lot of things about it make for good opportunities for reflection. It took the form of a minibus ride with a diverse group of people, whose emotions, comments, and varied reactions make the experience more thrilling. These volumes share the insider view of the heritage of this province. Exquisite, touching, emotional, inspirational, informative, tear-jerking, and amusing, are just some of the descriptions that best capture what a journey through the cities and small towns in the province was. We hope you enjoy this journey with us and emerge from this dreamlike place knowing more about the people, places, history, and heritage of South Africa.

What is heritage? And what do we mean by a liberation heritage? Heritage is sometimes described as a gift or legacy from the past. In the 1970s, academics thought that it was an uncomplicated gift, something that one passes from one generation to the next. Recently, it has become clear that heritage can be cultural capital. In South Africa and other parts of the world, we see that the powerful often determine what heritage is. Indeed, UNESCO’s earlier stance on heritage definition and management indicates that heritage was largely tangible (that is, consisting of monuments and sites) and it was to be found mostly in Europe and North America. Today we know that there is an abundant intangible cultural heritage in Africa and other parts of the world. The intangible heritage that we speak of consists of music, idioms, language, poems, food, ritual practice, belief systems and aesthetic or artistic expression. These three volumes showcase the rich diversity of tangible and intangible cultural heritage in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Given that we are living in a post-apartheid country, these three volumes necessarily speak to the overarching theme of liberation. Who were the Eastern Cape’s major activists? Which locales speak to the nation’s overcoming in the face of apartheid? Which little-known songs and sayings articulate the resilience and creativity of the people living here?

Our fellow travellers and narrators on this journey are a group of arts and humanities students from Nelson Mandela University. Harnessing this global icon’s name and values, they traversed the length and breadth of the Eastern Cape to uncover its rich histories, stories of resilience, retained cultural practices, cherished sayings and remembered songs. We hope you enjoy this journey with us and emerge from this dreamlike place knowing more about the people, places, history and heritage of South Africa.