born free generation
It is not for nothing that the born free youth in 2013 has been named the “me generation”. Today’s people growing up are materialistic, self indulged and obsessed with themselves. This essay will explore that 19 years after the first the first democratic elections in South Africa, the young people of today are little different from their counterparts else where in the world. My argument will show that this is somewhat ironic because politically inspired school pupils were the catalysts for one of the most important resistances against the apartheid government.
In 1976 the National Party attempted to modify the education act and insist that Afrikaans be the medium of instruction for Bantu education. On the 16th of June politicised and angry young teenagers poured into the streets of Soweto equipped with suitcases and stones. They confronted heavily armed policemen and the might of the South African military with the determination to express their outrage at yet another political injustice. Hector Peterson lost his life on this day and his limp body became emblematic of a politicised youth determined to make South Africa a democratic country.
When President’s Kennedy, Nixon and Johnson involved the United States of America in a war across the globe, to minimise the influence of communism, young people in America took to the streets and protested vigorously across the land. Indeed, this event characterised popular culture to such an extent that protest music became a genre popular worldwide. Singers such as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Peter, Paul and Mary voiced the objections of the “Love Generation”. Music in fact became the medium for political resistance in South Africa as well; Johnny Klegg became the “white Zulu” and his anthropologist wrote resistance songs, which young people in South Africa promoted with much vigour and enthusiasm. Stephanie Powers too became a voice of political decent and her raspy voice with songs like “Last night when we were young”
In 1976 the National Party attempted to modify the education act and insist that Afrikaans be the medium of instruction for Bantu education. On the 16th of June politicised and angry young teenagers poured into the streets of Soweto equipped with suitcases and stones. They confronted heavily armed policemen and the might of the South African military with the determination to express their outrage at yet another political injustice. Hector Peterson lost his life on this day and his limp body became emblematic of a politicised youth determined to make South Africa a democratic country.
When President’s Kennedy, Nixon and Johnson involved the United States of America in a war across the globe, to minimise the influence of communism, young people in America took to the streets and protested vigorously across the land. Indeed, this event characterised popular culture to such an extent that protest music became a genre popular worldwide. Singers such as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Peter, Paul and Mary voiced the objections of the “Love Generation”. Music in fact became the medium for political resistance in South Africa as well; Johnny Klegg became the “white Zulu” and his anthropologist wrote resistance songs, which young people in South Africa promoted with much vigour and enthusiasm. Stephanie Powers too became a voice of political decent and her raspy voice with songs like “Last night when we were young”