Why South Africa's youth activism needs a revival

Mac Maharaj

Nelson Mandela was a disruptor.

He challenged established ways of thinking and acting. He accepted responsibility for the consequences of his actions. Most importantly, he viewed every setback not as a defeat but as an opportunity to advance social change.

But Mandela did not emerge in isolation. He was part of a generation of young people who refused to accept the limitations of the world they inherited. They challenged conventions, questioned accepted wisdom, and sought new ways to advance the struggle for freedom. He did so within the framework of a collective with the ability to take responsibility for his actions when the consequences did not meet their expectations.

That spirit is particularly relevant as we commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Soweto Uprising of 1976.

Over the years, much valuable work has been undertaken and continues to recover and preserve the history of that generation. Some of those who played important roles in those events are still with us. We honour them, and through them we honour the entire Soweto generation. Their achievement was not simply that they protested.

Their achievement was that they reasserted the historic role of young people as agents of social transformation at a time when it seemed that intensifying repression had made it impossible to protest against oppression and exploitation.

Today, I would like us to reflect on a broader question. There is a growing sense that despite significant advances we have made since the advent of our constitutional democracy, our country is faced with a pressing need to overcome the mis-steps of the past thirty odd years; that we have to forge ahead purposefully to build the nation-in the-making on the basis of equality, non-racialism, unity, democracy and the eradication of patriarchy.

There is widespread frustration that a sense the unity of purpose that marked the transition to democracy in 1994 is dissipating. We are increasingly a divided society. This is the time for the youth to rise to the challenge.

Our question, therefore, centres on what enables young people to emerge as leaders of society.

What were the qualities that enabled successive generations of young South Africans - from Pixley ka Isaka Seme and Charlotte Maxeke, to Anton Lembede, Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Robert Sobukwe, to Steve Biko and the students of 1976 - to move beyond representing the interests of youth alone and become leaders of the nation as a whole?

If we can identify those qualities, we may also discover what is required of young people today as they confront the challenges of democratic South Africa.

As the ANC tries to renew itself and seeks to stay relevant, it is essential that this process is strengthened by the energy and fresh input from the youth.

When we look back across our history, four characteristics repeatedly emerge.

First, the courage to challenge convention.

Second, the ability to organise.

Third, the willingness to think critically and develop ideas.

Fourth, the capacity to connect personal concerns to the broader interests of society.

These qualities help explain why some young people become leaders not merely of their generation, but of society as a whole.

Mandela was not born a leader. Like every generation before him, he had to learn. He entered politics at a time when many believed that deputations, petitions and appeals to reason would eventually persuade the rulers of South Africa to abandon racial domination. But Mandela belonged to a generation that came to the conclusion that the methods of the past had reached their limits. Together with Anton Lembede, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo, he challenged established thinking within the ANC itself.

This is an important lesson. Leadership is not obedience to inherited wisdom. Leadership often begins when people respect the past but refuse to become prisoners of it.

The first quality is the courage to challenge convention.

Pixley ka Isaka Seme was only twenty-five years old when he delivered his famous address on “The Regeneration of Africa”. At a time when Africans were encouraged to think of themselves primarily in tribal terms, he advanced a vision of African unity. That vision found organisational expression in the formation of the South African Native National Congress in 1912.

To appreciate the significance of Pixley ka Isaka Seme's contribution, we must remember the conditions in which he lived. The nineteenth century had witnessed the conquest and dispossession of African communities. Resistance had been courageous, but it had largely been fragmented. Communities fought separately and were defeated separately.

Seme understood that the age of isolated resistance had come to an end. His great contribution was not merely organisational. It was intellectual. He recognised that unity was no longer desirable; it had become a historical necessity.

Young people become leaders when they recognise realities that others have not yet fully grasped.

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