My dream this Youth Day: iLIVE

Let us plant seeds of consciousness that will help our youth to flourish

With Youth Day coming up, the youth of South Africa are once again under review. We are perceived as the hope for the future and the ones who will build up this nation.

We are the ones that will be the deciding factor in the next election, according to political analysts. I would like to contest this by asking how we can start to think of solutions to our problems if we are not aware of how our thinking is influenced by the past.

We may believe that we are the crafters of our own opinion, but the past has an influence in our current thinking, that is too significant to overlook.

The process of our thinking and how we form our opinions are notably influenced by our how and where we are raised, the schools we attend, the social class we fall under and our race.

We still think in divided lines. We need to consider what influence past generations has on our thinking and what this means for the born-free generation, and reconciliation amongst our youth.

As Thabo Mbeki once said “I get a sense that we've all been educated into one school of thought. I'm not surprised at all to find among the overwhelming majority of scientists, are people who would hold one particular view because that's all they're exposed to,” and if this is the case,how many of us are able to detach ourselves form that one school of thought and truly start to think in an equal and direct way?

Many young people are highly motivated to participate in campaigns and youth activism, believing that they are in pursuit of creating equality and unity in South Africa. In reality, working together as young people, we ourselves actually do not treat each other equally.

We use where we come from as a reference point – if we are from the suburbs, we mainly socialise with suburban youth and have preconceived perceptions of youth from townships, even sometimes mocking their English accents. By doing so, we push the divide wider. So how can we rest our hopes solely on youth if there is already so much preconceived thinking?

A child does not know what is wrong or right until an elder tells or shows them. This therefore means there is a deep-rooted thought process that has already been placed in a child’s ind before entering society.

To every generation that is born, the generation before subconsciously plants a seed of its thinking, how it views people, society and the world to the current generation.

For example, in many black households when there is always a racket and fighting, in Xhosa they say ‘kungathi kuse malawani’. The translation of this phrase is derogatory,meaning ‘it’s like a Coloured household’. So, already from a young age one starts to build certain images of how ‘Coloureds’ are these ideas are reinforced every time it is repeated.

It means as a young black person you already disassociate yourself with the so called ‘Coloured,’ i.e. ‘negative people’. This is just one example, but incidents like these plant deep-rooted thought processes which foster the divisive nature of our society.

And so as the divide widens, we need to ask ourselves how past generations add to this divide amongst us youth through their behaviours, teachings and policies put in place.

The question then becomes about how we grow something new where there is already something growing – we must plough out that seed and plant a new one. As youth, we need to be made conscious of our thinking and behaviours, and make a choice.

Our choice then becomes one between viewing and engaging the world from our own perspectives and based on our unique realities, or invoking the realities that have been constructed for us – the illusions and fabrications of propaganda and/or manipulation.

We are trying to increase youth social and economic development but we are not thinking how to sustain it by forgetting about the aspect of what was ‘planted’ in the past. Many leaders saw the need for reconciliation when South Africa was moving into a new democracy.

I would argue that this remains a need amongst youth. Youth of today may have not experience apartheid or colonialism but they carry the burdens of their fathers and mothers.

This is what needs to be addressed and rehabilitated amongst youth. The gap of divisions continues to grow because the thinking has not changed – this will lead to the same actions, just in a different time. Our different histories and cultures have planted a seed inside us which has been passed down from generation to generation. History has continued to build on that seed.

However, before we work on building a better future, it is absolutely vital that each South African reflects on history and its effect on our mentality and perceptions, the old and the young generation so that the ‘born-free’ generation will be able to deliver on these hopes and opportunities to build something completely new and united.

I am not saying that as the youth we are hopeless or doomed because of the generations before us. On the contrary, I commemorate and take with me the lessons of courage, will and determination that they have demonstrated in the past. The potential for a powerful future remains in our hands.

However, we need to be cautious of our thinking, what governs and defines it so we do not repeat the mistakes of the past. We need to find a way to remain true to who we are and where we come from but also foster new and truly independent thinking to build a new history.

 For this to happen, we need to be aware of the powerful influence of the past on our thinking – the seeds planted throughout history. If we become aware of our thinking and actions thereof, we can consciously move towards trying to rid of this seed.

We as youth will then begin to build a truly unified nation beyond race, social status and any boundaries.

Anelisiwe Miza is an intern at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation and works on the Youth and Reconciliation Camp project.