SEDIBENG – It is well known that September is a month welcoming the spring season, where nature flowers and human beings undergo renewal.

The Diniso Arts Complex is celebrating the new season with a packed programme celebrating storytelling, books, and local history from September 3 to October 31.

Events will run every weekend from 10:00 to 17:00, featuring unique stone and chalk storytelling alongside book readings backed by live guitar music.

The storytelling will be of ‘Stones Storytelling’ (ho qoqisa) and ‘Chalk Storytelling’ (ho taka).

Diniso Arts Complex Director Iga-Makhulu Diniso explained that the initiative aims to teach children about their heritage and history.

“The tight-knit community of Sharpeville shares a deep history as one big family that suffered, survived, and triumphed together, intermarried, and is therefore one big family that suffered, survived, and won together.  The September Heritage storytelling is a thread that is going to knit together the Sharpeville shawl of respect, dignity, cleanness, and neatness between the elderly generation and the new generation.”

He added that art serves as a needle to stitch a torn fabric, noting that hard truths must be told for the community to heal. Visitors will have the chance to learn about important local history, including the 1942 Top-Location Forced Removal, the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre, the 1984 Sharpeville Rent Boycott, the Sharpeville Six incidents, and the Ha LEFIEDI House Ambush.

Diniso stressed that these local events should be remembered just as the Jewish Holocaust is kept alive through books, films, and documentaries.

Alongside the weekend activities, Iva-Nyaniso ‘TRUTH’ Diniso will host ‘The Room’ solo music show on Saturdays and Sundays starting at 18:00.

Bookworms and storytellers can also visit the complex in Bedworthpark on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays between 10:00 and 15:00.

Additionally, visual artists and creative craftspeople are invited to exhibit their work.

For more information, contact 084 282 9160.