It is June 16, 2024, counting 48 years of the Soweto uprising. As a nation, we thought we would have a decolonized education system by now. The 1976 Youth had set the tone for us to have an education that speaks to us as black people. This brings us to a question: was their fight and sacrifice in vain? Maybe not because their cries were heard, and we were privileged to be taught in English and speak our indigenous languages in schools.
There is now a new trend of revitalizing and preserving Indigenous languages, which had previously been diminished; we are now producing the curriculum in these indigenous languages. This is indeed a win for a black child, and we thank the efforts of PanSALB and other departments for fostering this change and ensuring that our education curriculum is tailor-made to meet the needs of black children.
The youth of the democratic South Africa
One may ask, do we still have goal-driven youth who care about the future? It seems like the youth of 1976 have multiplied or somewhat resurrected to accomplish their goal. On October 12, 2015, South African students embarked on a #Feesmustfall protest after the South African government announced a fee increase for the 2016 academic year. Interestingly, the protest started at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg.
This is very interesting because the Soweto uprising also happened in Johannesburg; what does this mean about all these courageous acts by Johannesburg Youth? It can have different meanings depending on someone's positionality. But in my opinion, I would say that this means the Youth of 1976 has resurrected and wants to fix the higher education system because the protests demanded the removal of" institutional racism and Eurocentrism," a similar cause that the hero Mashinini and many others have fought for.
The 1976 survivor, Mr. Mzwakhe Mbuli, compares the incident with the Sharpeville and Marikana massacres, where people were killed like animals. He says, "Imagine a school child in a white shirt bleeding, an innocent child; I do not know how some of us dogged those bullets." This means that the cruelty of apartheid continues in the democratic country; the only difference is that now we are killing each other.
Are we cursed? Because under normal circumstances, we, as black people, should be uniting against the enemy, it is very bizarre for a black person to take orders to kill another black person, especially when they are unarmed and fighting for their legal rights.
How is the youth of today honoring the efforts of the 1976 youth?
Today's youth seem to need help understanding the 1976 incident, looking at how they commemorate June 16. Consequently, you will find them on beaches and in nightclubs celebrating the day with alcohol, drinking their lives to the grave. However, we are grateful to see a few young people celebrating this day by youth conferences where they talk about issues that affect them and how they can come up with possible solutions to resolve them. An excellent example of a liberated and spiritually rooted youth is Izinkanyezi zase Afrika, who celebrates June 16 annually with an informative and educational program with their spiritual guider Dr Uzwi-lezwe Radebe, giving lessons on how they should carry themselves in a world full of destruction.
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