UNGRATEFUL GENERATION

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No one should ever forget the events of the past that made history, like the day when South African youth of 1976 became heroes and role models. Vision yourself having to take a decision that is way ahead of your time and age but believing the action you are taking will have a reaction that will make the future brighter not only for you, also those whom are after you. Picture yourself walking down the road with policemen in front of you singing freedom songs for a better life and education for all and later having them shoot you for your human right. Like dogs you go down and later treated like a worthless item of clothing that had no purpose in life.

In 1975 protests started in African schools after a directive from the then Bantu Education Department that Afrikaans had to be used on an equal basis with English as a language of instruction in secondary schools. The issue, however, was not so much the Afrikaans as the whole system of Bantu education which was characterized by separate schools and universities, poor facilities, overcrowded classrooms and inadequately trained teachers. On 16 June 1976 more than 20 000 pupils from Soweto began a protest march. In the wake of clashes with the police, and the violence that ensued during the next few weeks, approximately 700 hundred people, many of them youths, were killed and property destroyed.

It’s been more than thirty years since that event but it seems as if we are carrying on as if it had no significance what so ever. I remember every year when 16 of June comes by, for my parents it’s a day where they remember their friends who died and those whom were taken by the police and disappeared from the face of the earth as if they never existed.  For me and other people my age, it was just another day and a public holiday which meant no school. EXCITEMENT RIGHT? Sure but now as I grow up and learn more and more about this day, I am now ashamed of myself and I can comfortably call myself ungrateful because I now am able to enjoy what my parents and grandparents never got to do. I can walk around this country and not be afraid of being killed by the police just because I am black. I can now learn in my mother tongue or even in English and I have the opportunity to become anything in life as long as I am prepared to work for it.  It is because of them that I now have the right to vote and take part in politics without being killed.

How we celebrate this day is going out clubbing and drinking our minds out and not remembering what we did the previous night and still we have the nerve to say we are celebrating the youth of June 16. Did you know that those students were burning down sheebins and clubs because they knew how much of an effect alcohol has on the black community? They knew it was alcohol that played a part in breaking some black families during those days. Parents would drink the whole day to forget the amount of damage the system had on them.  Young children would drink because they never had resources like community centers where youngsters can get empowered and take part in extra mural activities.

We complain about the political situation of our country and how the ANC or the DA are not doing their job but funny enough we never participate in politics. We are the generation where if something doesn’t affect me than it’s not my business. We are quick to preach what the youth of 1976 went through but we are last to continue the fight of equity, freedom and right of life.

I must admit the problems and the struggles of the past are not the same as the ones we have today. We face HIV/AIDS, unemployment and crime to name a few.  Think to yourself for a minute, have you tested for HIV/AIDS? Have you visited your nearest AIDS orphanages and see how you can help? Have you registered to vote lately so what you need and want are meant by the government? If you have answered no to any of these questions it’s time for you to change your attitude.

So next time you celebrate June 16, reflect on the past, look at your present, look at your community and see if the challenges you  have together with your community.  Can they be solved or not? If one individual can die for your freedom, the least you can do to repay them is to keep the fight alive not only for your own being but also for the generation that will follow after you.