Issue of the Week: The Lost Generation
June 19, 2012The 16th of June 1976 was a year whereby young black South Africans took to the streets of Soweto in protest against the bantu education system that was orchestrated by the Apartheid government during the tyrant years of severe segregation. The students took to the streets in the morning of the 16th of June 1976 in protest against the then government’s decision to change the official language of learning to Afrikaans.
Such radical action from the youth symbolised the incredible amount of influence and the victory of young people over apartheid, it symbolised unity, strength and self consciousness amongst the youth of 1976. But however do these values and traits reflect the ideas that the youth of 1976 protested and fought for when the current youth faces challenges such as lack of educational facilities, mass unemployment, HIV/AIDS, unjust violence and crime?
Many may argue that apartheid created a lost generation of children, as apartheid left many African people poor and uneducated and that the current generation is just reaping the fruits of being raised by an apartheid generation. This can suggests that the current youth has inherited the struggles of the past generation, such as poverty and illiteracy, and inherited new struggles of their own such as crime, violence, unemployment, HIV/AIDS etc.
One can argue that the difference between the struggle of the past generation and the current generation would be that the challenge of the current generation does not have a face. Unlike the previous generation where their challenge had a face, which was apartheid and the system, it was much easier for them to form a united front and fight the system. However the current generation is faced with a number of ambiguities, whereas they cannot clearly identify the enemy or put a face to their challenge. One can suggest that they are faced with a pool full of problems with no clear cut source, and this however makes the challenge more complicated and difficult.
Is it fair for one to say that our youth is the lost generation?
Please note: The views expressed in this article do not reflect the views of Global Edge Media and are the opinions of the writer involved.
Posted by Zandile Ngubeni. Posted In : Opinion and analysis
