The central theme of any of the black child in modern South African is about freedom. Freedom that we seem not to understand. We do not understand this freedom because we have never been not free. We were born into this democracy and taught about the atrocities of the past world. Thus we find ourselves seeming to have already won but the fact is, we have haven’t even began to fight.
What does it mean to be an African, South African youth in modern South Africa? Understanding that we are the children of the Bantu educated. What I call a Bantu culture. As Steve Biko stated that South Africa seems to be a province of Europe than to be an African country. It is true, one is yet to travel outside South Africa to see other African cultures and how they live in person but, from the television movies of Nigerian and story books of Zimbabwe one cannot escape the fact that indeed South Africa is different. South Africa has developed its very own African culture in which we find ourselves in. We being the African youth. Our black culture is influenced by the gangsters and mob kings and queens of Sophia town and Koffie. Our Sotho has been infused with Afrikaans here and there and very often one will hear Lesotho Sothos tell us that indeed we do not speak SeSotho but another version of it which isn’t SeSotho! So is the influence of the Bantu education that was taught to our parents and from our parents to us.
It would seem as if we, the African youth, do not know our place in this democratic country of ours. The white children still benefit from the exploits that were made by their parents and grandparents in the past world. It is rare to find a youth of white origins finding it difficult to live in post-Apartheid South Africa. One might argue that it is by choice that we African youth are still at the “bottom of the food chain”. Yet when one examines that bold claim, we realise this isn’t the case. Our roots are laid in the sufferings and the oppression of our fathers and mothers. This is the truth of the matter we are faced with. Our parents are still severely affected by the evils of white supremacy. We cannot ignore the vital importance the role of a parent plays to a child on any level. Our parents still praise the white man for being diligent in his work and in his operations. In the white man’s work there is no flaw. Hence it is still common practice of our elders to change to Afrikaans when speaking to a white man. Whether the white man be Afrikaans or English. Once the conversion is over, our elder switches back to his home language only to curse the white man and his evil ways. Thus, we the child who witnesses these acts by our elders have the tendency to follow suit.
Yes, we do no longer speak Afrikaans as we used to. But we all know, especially us from small towns of South Africa, in order to get ahead Afrikaans is still very much an important language to learn and understand. In town schools, Afrikaans becomes the second language, English the first. Your home language becomes the third. It is with great shame I have to confirm I cannot read any African language with ease and I only understood the depth of this shame when I was in Matric, 2012. However, this leads to the fact that we as African children in modern South Africa do not know exactly our true African roots.
This has become the new struggle and challenge for us. Ours is the culture of pre-2000 BMWs, Converse Old Stars like the Americans and kwaito that speaks about the life of “Kasi”. Even the suburban child as I, have foundations laid in the township. Yet going to these townships it isn’t clear as to exactly where do we as South African Africans come from. It is usually linked to an area where the evil system of Apartheid merely revoked and thus relocated our forefathers to the townships. It becomes near an impossibility for any Black man to trace his origins to the true tribe in which he originates from before the white came to this land in 1652. I had to do great reading and research to understand why I, Thando Xaba, hail from QwaQwa when my surname connects with the royal army of the Zulu kingdom.
I believe with the greatest conviction that this is where we as the modern South African need to engage in. We need to understand better our traditions and cultures. Yes, one cannot expect that we begin to walk around in spears and shields in the corporate world of today. But it is of paramount importance that we understand where exactly we come from in order to understand our place in modern South Africa. It is impossible to expect us to be comfortable in the greater world when at home we are but a tree with no roots in the ground. This is the struggle we are facing as the African youth of today. We need to find our identity in the Democracy that constitutes our land.
Thus, it is important still that we learn from our Apartheid inflicted elders. As in KwaZulu Natal where they don’t recognise you by your surname but by your tribe name and praises. Important practices of African culture of the Bantu people that even the Venda and Sotho people also practice this art of greetings. We need to learn the ancient teachings as to why women are not allowed to eat eggs, why it is an insult to hear a hat in a house and why great lakes are protected by great snakes. These teachings can only be taught by our elders and no other. We honestly cannot expect a white man, no matter the level education he possess on the matter, to teach us the African youth what it means to be African. Inasmuch Afrikaans claim to be ‘White Africans” their roots are easily traced back to the people of Dutch and Dutch culture. Any white in Africa is not a true African. Their ancestors came on a boat to “civilise” Africa whether it be in politics, economics, theological ideologies or medicine. They simply cannot claim to be African or to be of an African descendent.
As we all know, most of our traditions are of oratory in nature. Hence those we have not went to the mountain as a male will never know what happens up in the mountain. It isn’t written down on paper. It doesn’t come in a “Learn more” booklet or pamphlet. It is a strict African custom that you will only learn when you go to the mountain. And as for a Zulu speaking Sotho, they deny you the experience because “you do not know where you stand”. So is the tradition of the modern day African South African. Much of our youth do not know where they stand.
We speak English with great fluency and eloquence and by measure of how we speak this language we seen to be intelligent. To be of great wisdom and knowledge. Yet, ask the black child who attends those private schools in Gauteng or Western Cape and the poor child has no knowledge of his African origins. I once asked a child from one of those ridiculously expensive private schools to recite to me his tribe’s praises. To tell me his tribe name. He, thinking he has answered intelligently and correctly, responded by telling me that in his tribe their praises is “they never quit”. Such pride he displayed for the absurdity in his answer. But such is the sadness in most, if not, all African youths.
It is of great importance therefore we educate ourselves in the African way of thinking. African way of living throughout the whole of Africa. We of the Bantu culture need to develop a great sense of what it means to be Black in South Africa. What does it mean to be in this African country that does not behave like other African countries? What does it really mean to be African in our Apartheid inflicted country of Azania? This is our quest to solve. This is our quest to understand as the “born-frees”. This is our struggle.