Born free – now spread your wings and fly

Emma Swart

Cape Town - Young people, many of whom paid the ultimate price, helped to dismantle apartheid and bring democracy to South Africa.

The late Archbishop Desmond Tutu recognised the contribution of the youth when he said: “You are fantastic; do you know that? Our freedom, in a considerable measure, was due to what young people such as yourselves did 40 years ago not very far from where we lived in Soweto where Hector Pieterson was shot and killed.

But you are fantastic.

Reach for your stars, because now you can be anything and everything you want to be.”

This remark of Tutu reminds us how on June 16, 1976, thousands of young people protested against the apartheid government’s enforcing of Afrikaans as the language of teaching and learning – a language that these protesting students did not speak.

For them, it was also a revolt against oppression and injustice. Due to the police’s violent response to the protest, over 500 young people, including learners, were killed.

On Youth Day, we honour their courage, determination and sacrifice.

It’s a reminder of the bravery of the protesters and of the legacy they left behind for future generations.

But we cannot view Youth Day in isolation. We must celebrate it in remembrance of the Struggle for freedom and equality faced by many South Africans for generations.

What does this mean for us today, especially at a place like Stellenbosch University (SU) where I study? How do we acknowledge what was fought for in the past, but somehow seem to keep having the same conversations 47 years after the Soweto uprising?

At SU, we are just dawning on multilingualism and the importance of learning in your language. The uprising taught us that forced language is not ours to embrace. So, when we celebrate the valiant efforts of our predecessors in 1976, we need to consider their striving for a better life and embody that in all we do.

That brings me back to my earlier question of what this means for a place like ours. In addition, what does activism like the youth-led uprising of 47 years ago translate to in the context of SU in 2023?

When we dig a little deeper, we realise that by standing against the use of language as a tool of oppression, young people shone a light on what such oppression was damaging most: access to education.

As youth in this young democracy, our born-frees have fought for access to education. We saw how the Rhodes Must Fall and subsequent Fees Must Fall protests disrupted the system. We saw it again at SU when we said no to racism in 2022. And dare I say, we will see it again, as many students continue to be left behind because they do not have access to much-needed financial resources.

Tutu was right when he said the youth are fantastic and that they can be anything and everything they want to be. Young people can look at this nation’s past and see that in addressing oppression, injustice and the challenges faced by our people, they not only have the power, but the potential to bring about change and transformation.

But just talking about transformation would not be enough; we will have to move to transformative action.

Transformative action is not merely changing for the sake of change. Transformative action is not simply becoming a multilingual institution and changing signposts.

It is also not a simple change of principle, but a changed vision and execution of practice. Transformation is an acknowledgement to do better once we know better. It is an action taken on by a community. It is a process. Eventually, we must move from talking about transformation to transforming.

As we attempt to make this move, we must continue to remember Youth Day for what it was, for what it is now, and for what it will eventually be.

In this way, we will truly honour the memory of those brave young people who helped pave the way for democracy in South Africa.

Swart is a final-year BEd student and member of the Students’ Representative Council at Stellenbosch University.

Cape Times