It is a great honour for me to be here as the guest of Inkosi Luthuli and his people on this special occasion. A cultural day in the life of any people is a unique event. People the world over are proud of their culture, for that is what defines them as the people they are. Their culture is their very essence. Before I say more on the subject of culture, I would like to say that being the guest of Inkosi Luthuli is also something very special for me personally.

My association, and indeed friendship, with Inkosi goes back a long way. We have worked very closely together, most notably in the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa after the first democratic elections. When he was elected, he was one of the youngest members of Parliament.

The people of this particular clan are fortunate to have as their leader, a leader equipped with the kind of experience the Inkosi acquired in Parliament, as a representative of his constituency. Inkosi Luthuli has exercised power, both as a hereditary leader, and also as an elected leader. Both Inkosi and I, and other amaKhosi who serve in Parliament, have had the very special privilege of serving our people in both capacities.

This is not the first visit I have paid Inkosi and his people. I visited previously when Inkosi kindly invited me on a similar occasion.

People of my generation all know of one famous Luthuli Inkosi. I am speaking of the late Inkosi Albert Mvumbi Luthuli of the Amakholwa clan in Groutville Mission Reserve near Stanger. Inkosi Albert Luthuli was, of course, the first African to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Over many generations there have been many famous amaKhosi of the Luthuli clan. The list is extensive, starting with ancient ones such as Ncamuzakancane, Mqayana, Zuba, Nkomo, the father of Luthuli. Following these are several other Luthuli amaKhosi such as Myebu and Ntaba. When a Luthuli sneezes, he or she can say: "You of our people, the people of Zuba ka Mqayana, the people of Ncamuzakancane".

Legend has it that when the Qwabe people travelled south to the Umhlathuze area, the Luthuli section of the Luthuli people decided to remain, but another section of them came down to the South Coast, where we are today.

James Stuart, one of the chroniclers of Zulu history who made splendid use of our oral tradition, recorded what one member of the Luthuli family told him about his people. He wrote: "Mcothoyi remarks that in former days people of his tribe, and for that matter, those of other neighbouring tribes, used to smelt their iron."

Stuart went on to report: "They made their own charcoal, and found their own iron stone. These stones were conveyed to the furnace near which were bellows. Girls and young men were employed in the work, but only such as did not Hlobonga. Nor were those associated in huts during the night allowed to be present at these operations, for all forms of sexual intercourse were regarded as liable to bring about disastrous effects, causing the iron not to flow properly from the stones. This practice was strictly observed".

This narrator of the Luthuli history went on to say that when the Luthulis crossed the Uthukela River, the people on the Natal side of the river demanded that the Luthulis pay tribute (thela'd). The payment was in the form of izimbedu or neck-rings. The people then crossed with their cattle and their women. This is said to have been followed by skirmishes.

They finally settled after they crossed the Umngeni and Umkhomazi rivers. It was between these two rivers where they subsequently lived. They found Amabhaca who were settled there and who used to call Umngeni by the name of Umsunganyathi.

The Luthulis, according to this chronicler, adhered to the custom of cutting the little finger of the left hand, which they would cut at the joint just like the Amabomvu. The custom was later discontinued. When Mcothoyi passed these annals of the Luthuli people to the English chronicler, he was a man of 77 years. It was on the 17th of April 1905. I thought this brief historical background might be of interest, particularly, to the younger generation of Luthulis.

Indeed, I believe it is very important that the younger generation gain an understanding of their cultural heritage. For as another Nobel Peace Laureate put it, 'to live without a past is worse than to live without a future'. Our culture emphasises that we are linked to our ancestors. We are not mere products of random chance. We know that the land on which we stand here on the South Coast is the very same land our ancestors once stood upon. Our primary duty as amaKhosi is to uphold the customs and traditions of our people.

Why is tradition and culture so important to our daily lives today? First and foremost, as I have said, our culture is what makes us the very people we are. Culture is our lifeblood. A people without a cultural heritage will bob on the ocean of life like flotsam and jetsam.

It is self-evident that a people cannot have a future, unless they have a past to fall back on as a compass to guide them. For it is only by remaining true to one's culture that one discovers the best basis upon which to promote change. A Western philosopher captured the essence of this when he remarked: "If you want things to remain the same, things are going to have to change."

Throughout my long political career, I have always maintained that if we are to overcome the divisions of the past and rebuild our divided and broken society, we need to do so from the roots upwards. It simply cannot be done from the top down. The grassroots politics is not an empty term.

In our society, traditions are maintained by both the administration of indigenous laws and by ensuring that everything that makes us who we are is not washed away by a sea of modernity and change. If this was to happen to us here today, we would be left bereft like a people without clothing.

It is from tradition that we derive the wisdom to make decisions that sustain our communities. Within tradition, communities, such as this one, have the opportunity to access the ancient and tested ways of living. In this manner, we find the strength to meet the challenges of any hardship that comes our way.

We, as amaKhosi, are the principal custodians of our people's timeless customs and traditions. After the conquest and subjugation of our nation in the nineteenth century, the colonial authorities tried to codify what they understood to be our code of law. In this province we had the Code of Zulu law.

When the erstwhile KwaZulu government was conferred limited legislative powers in the 1970s, we seized that opportunity to discard the things in the Code which we found offensive. It is significant to recall, however, that our conquerors recognised Zulu law and custom, as long as our customs and laws were not contrary to the principles of natural justice.

One of the very first projects we undertook in the KwaZulu government was to establish the Bureau for the Zulu Language and Culture. We knew that if we were to progress in any sphere of life, we needed to be anchored in the bedrock of our language and our culture.

I recount this history because in the present day, a vigorous debate is taking place in many sections of our society about the need to protect our constituent languages and cultures. This is particularly so in the Afrikaans tertiary institutions, such as Stellenbosch University in the Western Cape. It is an important debate. We must not shrink from it because language and culture are so intimately bound up together.

There are those who say that a concern expressed over the survival of a culture or a people might in fact be a camouflage about a standard of living, a hypocritical concern about privilege or even sheer racism.

It is a question that none of us, even in these sunnier times of constitutional democracy and equality under the rule-of-law, should shy away from. For too often in our country's history symbols of culture, race and tradition have been perverted to sow discord and division amongst our disparate peoples.

I am of the view that all our constituent traditions should be respected and cherished if we are to move forward as one nation. We must not allow our respective cultures and traditions to be homogenised into a bland identity-kit. The celebration of our diverse cultures will strengthen our nation, not weaken it. United we stand, divided we fall.

For generations, we preserved our culture by passing on the knowledge of each generation through oral tradition. Take for instance the praises of our ancestors. Most of these were never committed to writing, yet they survived through the oral tradition of our people.

When one compares the praises, which even today are recited by people who are not literate, with those transcribed nearly 200 years ago, they are the same line after line. This underlines the importance of our oral tradition in engraving in the hearts and minds of our people our cultural inheritance. Tradition indeed lives.

It is for this very reason that I today heartily applaud the Luthuli Traditional Authority and the Department of Arts and Culture for organising this wonderful event.

But nowadays, our traditions and culture are facing a different kind of threat. As amaKhosi, we live in a time when the cultural and institutional integrity of our institution is relentlessly coming under pressure by the forces of politics and power.

I have repeatedly warned that amaKhosi are in danger of being divided by those who want to isolate them from one another. The purpose of our detractors is to destroy the institution from within. We have observed the oldest power game at work: to divide and rule. With the tempting sweeteners of patronage and, sometimes, the politics of the chequebook, there is an attempt to seduce and compromise the unity of amaKhosi.

I can pray that you will hearken to the voice of history and not forget that the strife and divisions that the Zulu nation reaped in the past, were the bitter harvest of colonialism and conquest. To survive and prosper we must return to the founding principle, which nourished the fledging Zulu nation: the principle of unity and strength. For united we stand, and divided we fall.

On this note, I must voice my praise of Inkosi Luthuli, who provides an exemplary kind of leadership. He has resisted the siren calls of patronage with vigour. Inkosi Luthuli has demonstrated how the best aspects of our culture and traditions can be combined with youthful leadership and zest, to champion the development of our communities.

In this endeavour, amaKhosi have a leading role to play in promoting socio-economic change to uplift our communities from poverty, hunger, homelessness and despair. By this touchstone, Inkosi Luthuli has not been found wanting.

As a leader, I have an obligation to take every opportunity I can to speak about the important role of tradition and the part culture can play in protecting our communities from a whirling tempest that is passing through our nation.

Today, more than ever, tradition and culture must be appreciated and embraced, for we live in a sad time when young people die untimely deaths and the natural rhythm of life is broken.

It is the tragic reality that our young people are being devoured by HIV/Aids. We live in a time when parents are cruelly robbed of spending their old age in the company of their children. We live in a time when babies are orphaned by the disease that does not care who you are, or where you come from. To date, the HIV/Aids pandemic has claimed a million, mostly rural, lives in areas like this one.

AmaKhosi must take the lead in fighting social prejudice and taboo, which have conspired in a vicious circle to perpetuate the pandemic. Only a community kind of leadership, such as the leadership provided by Inkosi Luthuli, will one day defeat this pandemic.

Returning to the primary purpose of today's proceedings, let me stress that the observance of tradition throughout our history has served as one of the ways our different clans come together and express the bonds of kingship and solidarity.

Today's function is mainly about dancing and rejoicing. Traditional dancing and singing has always been an intrinsic and a vibrant part of Zulu culture and a way in which we express our Zulu identity.

Our traditions, such as those we are enjoying today, serve as a source of unity in our society and are living proof of the common values which bind our communities together.

Today's celebration is a living testimony of the seamless continuity of our culture. By participating in this event, we experience once again a life giving sense of community, continuity, and harmonious living. Despite all the changes that modernity and change brings to our lives, tradition and culture possesses the wonderful ability to strengthen the moral fibre of our society.

It is my fervent hope that the youth, particularly the young people gathered here today, will always be able to draw upon the best of our traditions all the days of their lives. Let us keep alive the spirit of ubuntu and togetherness, in order to build a bridge between the past and the future.

Once again I am delighted to be here with you all today. Thank you for inviting me.