June 16 was Day of the African Child. It commemorates the student and youth protests during apartheid, particularly the Soweto Uprising of June 16th 1976 in which 10,000 school children took to the streets in peaceful protest of their right to quality education and the right to be taught in their mother tongue, rather than the language of their oppressors. Hundreds of children were shot by police, over 100 died, and nearly 1000 were injured. The worldwide outrage that followed this protest was the match that lit the fire of reform from apartheid. All started by a child. All because children demanded their voices be heard. As I write this I am struck by shock wave after shock wave of emotion. How similar oppression manifests itself throughout the world and across history. The apartheid regime in South Africa, a regime which caused global horror and outrage, was voted into power. The people knew that voting that government into power meant there would be separation between the white people of privilege and the people of color, and the majority voted for it. How easy it is to be swept up by the rhetoric of fear of difference, rather than the ideal of love across differences. How easily Brexit was won by that fear. How close Americans are to voting in a government who thrives off of that fear. How quickly the privileged forget the lessons of history only to ensure they repeat the horrors once again.
The Day of the African child is also meant to raise awareness about the education of African Children and the challenges they face. Although my students were unfortunately taking exams on the day, I was able to visit a nearby volunteer for her organizations program. She works for an NGO committed to the education and wellbeing of children with disabilities. The children worked hard to prepare a program that involved singing, drama, and a poet (in Botswana, a poet is generally the comedian or the truth teller, much like I would imagine as a court jester). I was glad to be there and to hear inspiring words from the guest speaker about the importance of the African child. He spoke of the challenges Botswana faces with children in rural areas unable to access equal education, or the young girls who are preyed upon by older men, often in exchange for money that the girl or her family is lacking due to poverty, and often encounters that leave the girl pregnant and leaving school or HIV+. Although there are children with disabilities who are able to access services, many more in the country are unable to due to a shortage of availability. He stated that protecting the rights of the child includes protecting the family unit. That all children must have access to and complete free primary education, the quality of which must be a corner stone. Education is a human right, a key factor to reducing poverty and child labor, and increasing democracy. Social services are also crucial for children. He ended the moving speech with two sentences that still ring through my head.
"We need to engage children and youth as agents of change. Viva African Child Viva!"
Later that evening I was able to watch Sarafina with my host brothers. This is a movie that is based off of the Soweto Uprising. It is actually a musical and although it focuses on a young girl Sarafina, her mentor and teacher is played by Whoopie Goldberg. I highly recommend this movie if you can access it (I believe it's on Netflix?). Sarafina is watched far and wide in southern Africa on June 16th, and many of the major TV stations broadcast it.
For me, this day was full of reflection and inspiration. Improving the lives of the children and youth I work with is my top priority while I am here. Working with youth in Bots has inspired me to continue to work with youth back home and to truly focus on ensuring their voices are heard and they are given the tools to go after their dreams. I was also struck by the beauty of music and protest hand in hand. My director growing up used to always tell us that a song comes out of a place of emotion so strong that words no longer do it justice. Either the pain or the happiness is too much, and music is the only solution. I realized watching Sarafina that protest also comes from a place of overwhelming emotion that must be expressed in another way to become bearable. People across the world protest when the pain and grief of their oppression is too overwhelming to sit with any longer, and the collective pain of their community must be heard. Both with youth and with oppressed people, I need to do my best in my place of privilege to listen and to support those moments of protest so positive change can come of it.
An extraordinarily wise professor introduced me to Dean Spade's book Normal Life. Through the book and the class I was instilled with one universal truth: we must start with the individual who is the furthest down the ladder of oppression and pull them up first before all else. When we look at systemic violence and oppression, it is intersectional and interlocking: no one is free until everyone is free. Although I, as a woman, experience oppression from patriarchal values, I know in America my privilege far outstrips the vast majority of the population. The individuals whose voices I must listen to, support, and amplify are those of queer people of color, most notably queer and trans women of color, whose families have endured generations of hate, discrimination, poverty, and violence through the systems and biases that I benefit from daily. I encourage you to do the same. We can and we must join in the battle against oppression. But we must do so in a way that centers the people who are truly in pain. Of course every individual life is important, but we as a society so desperately need taught that, after hundreds of years of disregarding human beings through slavery, jim crow, segregation, the war on drugs, mass incarceration, white flight, red lining housing, police brutality, gentrification, and much much more, Black Lives Matter.
The following are American and African POC who I follow on twitter and I highly recommend.
https://twitter.com/ZawadiNyongo
https://twitter.com/tanehisicoates
https://twitter.com/bellhooks
https://twitter.com/livingtruely
https://twitter.com/BreeNewsome
https://twitter.com/JanelleMonae
https://twitter.com/AmplifyTweets
https://twitter.com/nas009
https://twitter.com/MsAfropolitan
https://twitter.com/LeymahRGbowee
https://twitter.com/chescaleigh
https://twitter.com/AyeshaASiddiqi
https://twitter.com/iJesseWilliams
https://twitter.com/glennEmartin
Best,
Bethany
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