The context of our lives today might be different to 1976, but in no way does it diminish the contribution of young people in creating a new society, writes Tawana Kupe.
Youth Month is observed annually to commemorate 16 June 1976, when a peaceful student protest against the apartheid regime’s Bantu Education policy turned violent, resulting in police shooting school children in Soweto.
The protest was against a flawed education system that was meant to deny black people access to the kind of education that enabled students to achieve their full potential. Bantu education, as it was called, was designed with subjugation in mind: to exploit black people for their physical labour as domestic workers, miners or manual labourers rather than as skilled, technocratic professionals or intellectuals.
However, school learners saw through the racist economic and political intentions of this form of education and protested against them because they dreamt of a better future for themselves and their families within the context of the larger struggle against apartheid. While the protest that day turned violent, it also sparked a series of uprisings around the country.
The world’s media sat up and took notice when the now famous picture taken by Sam Nzima of Mbuyisa Makhubu carrying a dying Hector Pieterson as his sister Antoinette Sithole ran alongside them was published; soon, the global tide against the apartheid regime began turning. Boycotts and sanctions against South Africa became common, and it was not until the early 1990s when the country was allowed to return to the world stage again.
Youth continue to bear brunt
These hard-won battles should not be forgotten.
In recent times, we have seen images from around the world – including in the US, where youths have been killed by law enforcement authorities leading to movements like Black Lives Matter – of young people protesting against racially driven injustices.
It seems young people continue to bear the brunt and strive for freedom against oppression for themselves and their families, whether through slogans and placards in 1976 or stones being hurled at armoured military tanks in 2021. It is young people worldwide who make each day matter by imagining a better future and working towards it.
During the Victorian era, many poor young people were confined to workhouses, factories that housed sickeningly inhumane conditions. Orphaned children or those with a deceased or indebted family member were sent there. It was the children’s free labour that would pay the debt, even after death. Charles Dickens was sent to a workhouse and highlighted this period in novels like Oliver Twist. Today, there are many countries in which children and young people provide slave-like labour in factories that produce so many ubiquitous items for people around the world.
Vital role in fight against Covid-19
Youth can play a vital role in the fight against Covid-19.
I urge our young people to use their knowledge and a surer grasp of modern science to help their parents and grandparents understand the harmful impact of fake news shared on WhatsApp and other social media platforms. I also call on our youth to encourage elderly loved ones to be vaccinated.
The context of our lives today might be different to 1976, but in no way does it diminish the contribution of young people in creating a new society.
Thousands of students across South Africa are completing degrees to enter the world of work or start their own business and provide for their family, and in this way transform lives and communities. We live in a country with very high unemployment and youth unemployment in particular. But we can rely on the ingenuity and creativity of South Africa’s young people to generate a future for themselves by disrupting the current way in which things are done to benefit them tomorrow.
As a university, we play a central role in ensuring our students are well educated and appropriately skilled for the future. We are firmly focused on producing graduates that are able to change, adapt and thrive. In a disrupted, changing world, they must be the generation that learns how to learn, unlearn, and relearn to succeed in their professional lives.
UP is passionate about its position as an African university with global connections. It may sound like a bold statement, but the future of the world hinges on the future of Africa – Africa is the future, not just for Africans, but for the entire world.
The continent’s population of more than 1.3 billion will double by the middle of this century, potentially rising to four billion people by 2100, or around one-third of the world’s population. It is also the youngest population, and so, as a global community, we have a shared responsibility to ensure that this fast-growing continent brimming with promise grasps the opportunity for the good of us all.
New world of work
We recently hosted Africa’s first Nobel Prize Dialogue on the topic of the future of work because we know how crucial this is for young people. As a legacy project, we are in the process of creating a Centre for the Future of Work, and will launch its research, curriculum transformation and development and policy advisory and advocacy activities soon.
The centre will focus on a topical issue of our times: the emerging new world of work and the promise that comes with it. Given the high unemployment rate, much research needs to be done to find creative ways to address this problem, and youth entrepreneurship is a key first step.
Just as youth took a stand for a better future in 1976, so too does our collective future lie in the hands of young people.
I encourage all young people to make a difference every day and to make a positive impact in their communities. I believe that by engaging and working together, we can leave this world a better place than we found it.
- Professor Tawana Kupe, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Pretoria (UP), and a professor of Media Studies and Literature.
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