The paradox of South African Youth:By Khaya Dlanda.

The paradox of South African Youth:By Khaya Dlanda.

In post-apartheid South Africa, we all have the freedom to participate in the political process - but also the right not to participate. Our country's youth have tended to exercise the latter right, but the fact is that we need to participate politically if we want to inherit a country we can be proud of.

As young people in South Africa, to a large degree, we cannot really claim to have fought for liberation, although we are the ones who stand to benefit the most. Others fought on our behalf because we didn’t really understand what was going on. Our parents, their parents and their parents before fought for freedom. They died so that we might lead lives of our own choosing and making. They did not count on us being lost.

But, we don’t know who we are or where we are going. We are lost, like a plastic bag blowing in the wind. That generally happens when you follow overachievers. Our parents were overachievers for they defeated a system far bigger than themselves. 

We want to thank them for what they did. For bleeding and dying. For bleeding and living. For bleeding and not giving up. We think we will thank them by acquiring material possessions to impress them, but more importantly, to impress our friends. They bleed again because it is as if we are saying to them, “Look at what freedom can buy. A BMW.” They shake their heads. We shake ours, because deep down we know how empty our exploits are. And so we make a noise. We shout. Our shouts have no substance. No wisdom. Unlike an orgasm, wisdom cannot be faked.

We become agitators for its sake - not because we are bringing new ideas, but we agitate because we seek relevance. But we don’t realise that our relevance has no relevance.

What to do with all this freedom? Freedom has many so many complex sides to it. The right to buy; the right not to buy. The right to spend; the right not to spend. The right to care for the poor; the right to live one’s life without giving a damn about the poor. The right to care only for oneself. These are the consequences and the pleasures of freedom that we enjoy today.

A week ago, I watched the HBO mini-series on America’s second president, John Adams. While he was stationed in France to seek assistance from the French to resist the British, a French noblewoman asks him if he has ever attended the opera.

Adams responds by saying he has no ear for music because, “My occupation allows me little time for the finer arts. No, I must study politics and war, you see, so that my sons will have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons must study navigation, commerce and agriculture, so that their children will have the right to study, poetry, painting and music.” His son, John Quincy Adams, would become the sixth president of the United States. He too had dedicated himself to service.

Judging from what John Adams said to the Frenchwoman, we are missing an important step. Our parents fought for freedom, and we must fight to build the country, to strengthen its democracy, to build a foundation upon which the nation will prosper, not just look out for our own individual prosperity, for we prosper more as individuals if we help the whole nation prosper.

Since the last generation fought for our freedom, what are we fighting for? What is the mission of this generation besides partying? (Something to which I am completely unopposed I might add). Is it the sole thing we have decided to dedicate ourselves to? What have we decided we will do? What is our North Star?

We need to have a unified goal, but we all go towards it in various directions: some pursue it in commerce, others in government, and others in the arts. Where are we going? Since the grown-ups have not told us where they are taking the country, we might as well set our own course. What is the single, simple, palatable proposition?

What is the bold, balls-to-the-wall motto that we shall adopt? The great thing about the “American Dream” is that it can be whatever you want it to be. The motto gives you endless possibilities. But I want to refer to something that Apple CEO and founder Steve Jobs said during the early days of his company: "I want to make a ding in the universe." It is vague, but it is a bold statement. And you know what? He has.

I am not here to preach. I am here to speak to myself as a youth.

We grow up too slowly, but when eventually we do, we grow old too fast. We will wake up one day to suddenly realise that it is all up to us. We didn’t pay attention, now we must look after the country.

We are young; we should rightfully enjoy our youth. There is a misconception that enjoying one’s youth involves sex, partying and drinking. If I don’t do these things then I am not really enjoying my youth is the logic. Again, I am not opposed to parties; I go to several a week. All I am saying is we must not just live from one party to the next. Those who have lived the kind of lives that just involve hedonism often call these years, “My wasted youth”. If we want to make an impact, we can’t just focus on the shallow and narrow factors that just speak to the individual. There are many young people who contributed tremendously while they were still young.

The third president of the US, Thomas Jefferson, was just 33 when he wrote one of that nation’s most important documents, the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Even if he had never become president, just having written that document would have put him and it in American folklore.

At 26 years old, Martin Luther King Jnr organised a non-violent bus boycott after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in a segregated bus. At the end of the 381 days, the economy of the town had broken down so badly that the locals called for negotiations, and the Supreme Court declared that segregated buses were unconstitutional. Overnight, King became the national leader of the civil rights movement, a very youthful 27 year old. At 28, Martin Luther King preached his famous sermon, “Loving your enemies”.

His idea was radical because it was new. It was non-violent. It was also about love at the same time. It called to build, not to destroy. Yet he was a youth.

And of course, Steve Biko who died at 31 left us with radical ideas that we still quote to this day. “I write what I like.”

How did these young people become so famous? They served humanity not themselves. Studies show that people who serve causes that are higher than themselves are more satisfied and are happier. Those are, in fact, the ones who are enjoying their youth.

I am not here to preach. I am merely talking to myself. Publicly. I don’t have answers. I have the same questions that my generation is grappling with.

There is a terrible misconception that when you are young and somehow want to be involved in the political process, you have to be angry, abandon all reason and display all the vices of youth to make an impact in the political landscape. These young men, Jefferson, King and Biko, all stood up and were counted. They showed that one is never too young to be wise.

The second part of this talk I will call The Power of Opportunity. Opportunity in itself is agnostic. It favours no one. It favours those who do something with it, whether it is for ill or good. What does the power of opportunity mean? It means that you are fearless when you are faced with it, for it presents itself always, under good circumstances, under bad. It’s just up to the individual.