With its rich and diverse roots, South Africa boasts a colourful array of arts and culture that includes, among other things, craft, dance, literature, music, architecture, theatre and visual arts. This unique heritage plays a significant role in social regeneration, unity and reconciliation.
Art in Correctional Facilities Programme.
Government has initiated several national legacy projects to establish commemorative symbols of South Africa's history and celebrate its heritage.
Other projects underway are the 1981 Matola Raid Memorial in Maputo, Mozambique; the rehabilitation and development of the Lock Street women's prison in East London into a museum; the development of the former apartheid state security site Vlakplaas into a heritage memorial site; and the OR Tambo Memorial Project in Bizana in the Eastern Cape.
The National Arts Festival, held annually in July in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, is one of the largest and most diverse arts gatherings in Africa.
In 2010, the festival will be extended to cater for soccer fans visiting the Eastern Cape for the Soccer World Cup.
Kwaai Jazz is gaining popularity.
The Dance Factory in Johannesburg provides a permanent platform for all kinds of dance and movement groups, while the Wits (University) Theatre is home to the annual Dance Umbrella, a showcase for new work.
The Cape Town City Ballet is the oldest ballet company in the country.
Art galleries in South Africa's major cities (such as the Durban Art Gallery in KwaZulu-Natal; the Johannesburg Art Gallery in Gauteng; the South African National Gallery in Cape Town; and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape) display collections of indigenous, historical and contemporary work.
South Africa has a rich history of literary output that has been well received locally and internationally. Fiction is written in all of South Africa's 11 official languages - with a large body of work in Afrikaans, in particular.
The new pop culture in poetry, often referred to as "spoken- word poetry", is one of the most celebrated art forms throughout the country and beyond. Poets such as Lesego Rampolokeng, Lebogang Mashile, Kgafela oa Magogodi, Blaq Pearl, Jessica Mbangeni and Mark Manaka are household names in the genre. There are regular platforms created to give these poets opportunities to hone their skills.
The Department of Arts and Culture has launched the Indigenous Literature Publishing Project, aimed at producing a series of publications in different languages, by writers from different backgrounds across South Africa. This project aims to stimulate the growth and development of literature in indigenous languages and generate new readerships. In 2008/09, 24 titles of African classics were reprinted.
In August 2009, District 9, a space alien movie shot and set in Johannesburg with a cast of "unknowns", opened as Hollywood's number one film in the United States of America, grossing more at the box office in its first weekend than it cost to make. The film was directed and co-written by South African Neill Blomkamp. It was nominated for four Academy Awards in February 2010.
The goal is for the Cape Town Film Studios to become the film-making gateway between Africa and the international world.
In September 2009, JM Coetzee was nominated for the prestigious Booker Prize for Fiction for his work Summertime. Coetzee won the prize previously for Lifes and Times of Michael K and Disgrace.
The national anthem is a combined version of Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika (God bless Africa) and The Call of South Africa (Die Stem).