Generation: Free

This post is for Dineo.

As South Africa celebrates 20 years of democracy, myself and most of my friends got to exercise our right to vote for the first time. The little mark on my left thumb represents so much. It represents a freedom afforded to me by people, most of whom I will never get to thank. I know in my own life, this freedom has afforded me so many opportunities that I would never have previously had. Thinking about it brings up in me  a great sense of gratitude for the amazing people whose actions sparked the revolution that lead to it. We cannot forget the struggles of all those great men and women who fought so bravely and so fiercely. As we celebrate this freedom, we cannot forget to think about the countless number of lives that paid for it.

Twenty years of freedom also represents a long enough time to look around for the significant changes that it should have brought. I looked, and I was disappointed. Twenty years of freedom and my people are still not free. I do believe the greatest prison is the one created in your mind and we as the black population are still in chains. In as much as the freedom has been granted, the responsibility falls on each person to actually free themselves. We live in a society where we are still toying with the idea of this freedom, even those of us who have seemingly always had it. Being free is so much more than being able to live in any area you like. True freedom is all encompassing. I want to see people really allow themselves to think, and feel and experience, and be. I find that as the youth, the youth that should be the agents driving this freedom movement – we are constantly seeking permission or approval to be who/ what we want to be. Or we are going out of our way to stick to the standard formula for what we are suppose to be. 

As far as comparisons go, we seem to always fall short of the youth of ’76. We are often labeled as ‘misguided’,  or ‘lacking direction and motivation’. There is a truth to this that is painful to admit, but I also feel that it’s important to note that today’s youth is facing different struggles. They say you can’t be moved to change something until you feel as though that struggle is your own, when it hits home and affects you personally- then you act. So if this is what needs to be done for us to find our motivation then let us define our struggles!  I would love to see an African youth that is incredibly proud of its heritage and its culture and its diversity. To see a proud African youth. That is my fight, and I would like to see many more people adopt it as their own. With self pride comes so many other things, for example,  the belief in your own excellence that is actually required for the manifestation of that excellence.

Africa as a whole is like this sphere of abundant potential that is threatening to go unrealized forever. It hurts me because we can do so much, be so much. I find that we have a general sense of lack of belief in ourselves and our ideas as though they could never be great. Most likely because we have been brought up with a culture of thinking that dictates that all the best things are Western and all of our own things are inferior. It is in my view a crippling disease that strips an entire people of confidence and freezes innovations and ideas before they even have time to develop. Sadly, going to a good university and attaining a world class education does not make you immune to it. Even among us, the privileged minority- this ugly mistrust of our own capabilities prevails. We are shrinking our own potential and it has to change. So I am starting with myself, I am making a vow to pursue all of my own ideas because they are not only good enough- they are brilliant. And where they fall short and fail, I will rethink them and develop them further/ differently until I find how to make them work. This is the privilege that this freedom has afforded me- the freedom to dream huge and then actually make all those dreams a reality. it is a freedom that I will not take it for granted.

Let it never be said that this freedom was wasted on us. Let us get out there and do amazing things.

Love,

Noni