Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro
This Tuesday, June 16, Namibia joins the rest of the continent – if not the international community – in supposedly remembering and paying tribute to the South African youth, some of whom, on this day 50 years ago, paid dearly with their lives.
Why did they pay dearly with their lives, and who took the lives of some of them brutally? This was for being part of the broader resistance of the South African black majority and their sympathisers – a resistance that included armed resistance – against apartheid and all its manifestations.
Yours Truly Ideologically cannot but emphasise resistance against apartheid and all its manifestations, to dispel the misinterpretation that has through the years, and even to this day in the post-colonial era in both South Africa and Namibia, been peddled: that the 1976 boiling point in South Africa, spearheaded by the youth, was simply about Bantu Education – particularly about the South African youth’s rejection of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction.
This has come to be narrated time and again as an uprising, and subsequently given the misnomer of the Soweto Uprising. As if the youth or the South African students were not a conscious and conscientised and integral part of the South African democratic revolution – which was and could not have been solely about the rights of the children and/or the youth, let alone their right to education.
Instead, their actions on 16 June 1976 were a culmination of their consciousness and conscientisation about the abhorrence and abominableness of the apartheid system – a system that was and could not have been intrinsic to itself but part of colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism.
Thus, the South African youth, unlike what most narration would have us believe, were and could not have been parochial and intrinsic to self and an isolated epoch. Rather, their actions were an integral part of the revolution.
Because there was no way that the ultimate – socio-economic transformation in South Africa – could have been meaningful without the dismantling of the apartheid colonial and capitalist edifices in both South Africa and Namibia.
Such has been proven in both countries, where years after the dismantling of the apartheid system, the socio-economic conditions in both remain deplorable, unbearable, and inhuman.
This means that despite its legacies, which are far from having been arrested and/or reversed, apartheid was part of a bigger problem: capitalism.
As it currently pertains in both South Africa and Namibia, as in the rest of most African countries, all of which have since attained independence, but where the deplorable socio-economic conditions – which in the parlance of capitalism is nothing but exploitation – have been continuing and continue unabated.
This notwithstanding, the notion that continues to be peddled is that of the International Day of the African Child – instituted in tribute and homage to the heroics of the South African youth, not necessarily on this day specifically in 1976, but which has seen many epochs on different days and different years as part of the South African revolution.
Rightly, it is not and should not be about the right of the African Child but about change in any African society. The education of the black child in apartheid South Africa was and could not bring about the requisite socio-economic transformation then.
Likewise, today, both in South Africa and Namibia, and any other African society for that matter, just talking about the rights of the child and/or the youth is meaningless without the radical transformation of these African societies.
Therefore, the peddling of the right of the child and/or youth is as good as abetting and perpetuating the capitalist status quo – capitalism being the root cause of the violation of the rights of most in society, including that of the child and/or youth.
Thus, the Day of the African Child as currently observed is no better than perpetuating the continued disregard for the socio-economic welfare and wellbeing of the child and youth, as its observance is no better than lip service in the absence of determined actions to deal with the root cause, which is capitalism.
The observance of the day seems hitherto to have been used as a welcome platform for politicians and/or ruling elites to pacify the youth, pretending that they care very much about their rights, let alone their welfare and best interests.
In this way, the child and/or youth are lured at best into believing that they are taken care of, and at worst into a slumber, as if hypnotised or tranquilised.
The observance of the day in both Namibia and South Africa rarely sees the children and youth themselves taking the lead in observing it. Instead, they are paraded by respective authorities – like the NBC parading a San youth as presenting Good Morning Namibia on the day.
As if the youth on that day, 50 years ago in South Africa, did not pretend but head-on confronted the mighty South African apartheid regime’s war machinery, leading to the shooting to death of Hector Peterson.
Our President, Meme Nandi-Ndaitwah, was among those paying tribute to children on what is supposed to be their day, calling, as quoted in the local media, for the protection of children against all forms of abuse.
Yours Truly Ideologically cannot but wonder who the children are she was actually referring to, conscious of the ever-present reality in Namibia of children roaming the streets of the capital selling crafted utensils.
What about the rights of these children? It is not as if their plight is not known to the authorities, including Her Excellency, as it has been brought to their attention time and again.
For the NBC, if indeed the rights of the children matter, could it not, if only for a change, have ideally refocused on these children who are scoffed at as “Angolan children”?
