Soweto uprising spirit missing among today’s Zim youths

FOR a very long time, whenever I see the world-famous picture of the lifeless Hector Pieterson being carried by a crying fellow female schoolmate — fleeing from a volley of fatal bullets being fired at protesting South African high school students by the brutal apartheid security forces, on June 16, 1976 — I never cease wondering whatever happened to such a fearless revolutionary spirit in today’s youths.

The actions of that day, by the gallant students in Soweto who were protesting against the imposition of the teaching of all subjects in Afrikaans in their schools (largely regarded by the black majority of that country as the language of oppression), as well as against all other repressive apartheid laws — further galvanised other students throughout that country to fearlessly stand up against the regime.

Such valiant actions by what many would have regarded as mere children — who would have been expected to be more concerned with simplistic issues as courtship, dating and the latest fashion trends music and movies — and the subsequent brutal and horrendous response by security forces signalled the internationalisation of the fight against apartheid, thereby moving the liberation struggle to a whole new advanced level.

In fact, what these students did is widely believed to have been the real catalyst that led to the eventual global imposition of tighter restrictions and increased pressure on the apartheid regime — resulting in the freedom of the majority of South Africans in 1994.

Even today, 44 years after such brave acts by those students who dared confront the guns and bullets of the heinous apartheid regime, yet knowing and comprehending well the death and destruction they would face, that day (June 16) is commemorated globally as World Youth Day.

However, what we have so tragically witnessed over the decades is the apparent dilution and emasculation of this day — as today’s young people are no longer being taught and inculcated the real spirit of the revolutionary students.

The regime had wantonly brutalised not only the youths, but also their parents through heinous ruthlessness and laws.

These students had witnessed how the majority of their compatriots had been subjected to degrading and inhumane standards of living, while very few at the top enjoyed lavish lifestyles.

They had seen how the majority were forced to struggle and toil each and every day for a paltry wage, just to put food on the table while their oppressors could afford world-class buffets without a sweat.

They had been unwilling witnesses to their parents’ sobbing heart-rending tears as they could not afford to provide them with decent education and yet children of those in power would be attending some of the most expensive and best-equipped schools in the land.

These students had enough of living in ramshackle houses, whose roofs even leaked during the rainy season — as their parents could not afford decent dwellings due to the economic disenfranchisement of the majority — yet those of the political elite and their cronies lived in palaces and mansions that were only comparable to those they watched on television as belonging to the world’s rich and famous.

“Enough is enough!”, I am sure they told themselves and decided that only they, as the youth, had the power to change the situation in their country, once and for all.

They refused to blindly and sheepishly accept that this was their fate and would be the life of the majority of their country's people for generations and generations to come.

They had to take a firm stand, not only for their parents whom they loved so much and fully appreciated the tribulations they were facing each day, at the hands of their cold-hearted and callous regime.

Therefore, when they finally decided to face off against their repressive regime, fully cognisant of the heavy-handed and fierce response they would encounter, nothing was going to stop them, except death itself.

The choice for these students was straightforward. It was either they suffered a slow, but equally agonising death, as slaves and second-class citizens in their own motherland, or they faced the devil himself, and either die quickly, or vanquish him once and for all.

It certainly was not a simple decision to make, but was one they absolutely were sure was the right one to make.

However, today, this revolutionary spirit is kept hidden from our youth simply because our current leaders, especially here in Zimbabwe, are made from the same mould as the colonial and apartheid oppressors of yesteryear.

As such, they would never want to raise another generation similar to the “Class of 1976”. They are terrified of such a prospect.

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