The African Cultural Heritage Trust has championed Indigenous Knowledge Systems, traditional music, dance, medicine and culture across all nine provinces since 1984.
Discover Our Work
The African Cultural Heritage Trust is a national umbrella organisation representing Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) practitioners in all provinces of South Africa. It is non-profit, non-governmental, community owned and member driven.
Born from the Indlamu Cultural Association, established in 1984 as the first national body to actively conserve and promote IKS in South Africa, the Trust was transformed through an inclusive national process in 1993 in preparation for the new challenges that would face IKS in post-apartheid South Africa.
Provincial committees and trustees were democratically elected following an extensive national research and consultation programme engaging the most representative and respected traditional leadership institutions, IKS organisations, non-formal structures and individual practitioners in the country.
Established in 1992, the Zindala Zombili African Music and Dance Festival has grown into South Africa's premier cultural festival — a colourful and vibrant celebration of African culture and heritage that takes place across all provinces on an annual basis.
The festival provides a structured pathway from district level through to a grand Pan-African showcase, offering skills development alongside competitive performance and cultural exchange.
Beyond the festival stage, the Heritage Trust drives substantive work in policy advocacy, medicine security, food sovereignty, indigenous archives and traditional healer rights — rooted always in community ownership and authentic representation.
A curated repository of South African landrace cannabis strains connected to cultural identity and ancestral lineage. Accepted as the national flagship project for landrace cannabis under the DTIC's IKS Sandbox Programme.
In partnership with Druids Garden and the CSIR, developing hemp-based superfoods including a ting porridge blend for school feeding programmes, and hemp-based poultry feed — rooted in traditional agricultural knowledge.
Home to the largest collection of audiovisual content of Southern African traditional music and dance in the world, providing a centralised multimedia archive accessible via the internet alongside educational resources.
Leading national advocacy against the unilateral implementation of the Traditional Health Practitioners Act, with legal engagement through SERI and active rural community mobilisation across all provinces.
The Intamoyenkunzi Agricultural Co-operative in eMangeni, KZN — established in 2009 — has grown to support three further co-ops, providing food security and creating sustainable rural livelihoods.
Working with AIRCO to formalise royalty collections owed to groups historically featured in Heritage Trust television and radio productions, ensuring that practitioners receive fair compensation for their intellectual property.
Baba Sithole has dedicated more than four decades to the preservation, promotion and advancement of Indigenous Knowledge Systems in South Africa. A founding figure of the post-apartheid cultural sector, his leadership has shaped national policy, built international partnerships and given voice to communities whose heritage was marginalised under apartheid.
He served on the South African Commission for UNESCO from 1998 to 2000, contributing research that informed the UNESCO Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. He presided over landmark cultural events including performances at President Nelson Mandela's Inauguration Ceremony in 1994 and the Opening Ceremony of the FIFA World Cup in 2010.
Today, Baba Sithole represents the Heritage Trust on the board of SACHIDA as the IKS sector representative, while continuing to champion landrace cannabis protection, traditional healer rights and the commercialisation of indigenous knowledge for community benefit.
Whether you are a practitioner, researcher, government partner, sponsor or supporter of Indigenous Knowledge Systems, we welcome your engagement.
The Heritage Trust's mandate spans the full breadth of South Africa's intangible cultural heritage.