My heart goes to the enormous challenges faced by black South African millennials (1982-1995) and born frees (1994- to date). These challenges are in addition to their generational challenges which I classify as those of their own doing or, at least, those over which they have a great measure of control.
This group is caught within a triangle which makes it very difficult if not impossible to escape.
At the top of the triangle is lack of ethical leadership.
On the left is lack of creative or enterprising leadership.
On the right is lack of economic resources.
Never in my experience have I ever heard of a liberated people who must fight to emancipate themselves from failures of others before they start to look at how they can release their potential.
The ethical leadership manifests itself in the following practical ways, at least:
· Failure to provide this group with a proper education system that equips them for the future.
· Failure to deal with corruption decisively so that resources of the country are not squandered.
· Failure to embed a culture of accountability as this creates an impression that failure has no consequences.
On the left:
· Adults continuously blame government and shift their responsibility of parenthood.
· Able bodied adults who don't want to do anything for themselves (they don't even want to paint by themselves a house given to them by government).
· Adults who refuse to explore other possibilities for survival when traditional means are no longer viable ( e.g, who wants to go back to plough the fields when jobs are no longer available in the mines)
· Adults who have eroded the black traditions and values and have passed nothing to the next generation.
On the right:
· False expectations are being created that if people spend enough time at hotel lobbies waiting for or discussing deals, wealth will come soon.
· Our white compatriots who are still by far the captains of industry unwilling to give this group any opportunity.
· Endless and meaningless discussions about rich black people instead of acknowledging that wealth has not shifted at all from our white compatriots.
· Lack of bold steps by those in authority to embark on serious programmes to help this group with economic means (not grants) so they can take their chances.
I hope these millennials and born frees will understand what Steve Biko meant when he wrote “Black man you are on your own".
NOW, BLACK MELLENNIALS AND BORN FREES, YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN.
I fail to understand what the media mean when they criticize our education system whilst education is the highest in the budget speech every year. Who’s to blame for such poor results? The minister of basic education had a very vague answer when questioned about intricate details of the textbook scandal and why they were not delivered instead she replied “It is not my job, my job is to implement the policies for young students to get textbooks, not to physically deliver them”. It is true our ethical leadership is creating a culture where it is entirely fine to hold the next person accountable before any self-examination, and by doing that the general attitude is; it not my fault therefore I am not going to take any initiative to make things better.
ReplyDeleteAmongst the challenges faced by us black millennials some of them are also hereditary. With South Africa’s unique history one also tends to forget that part of Verwoeds apartheid declaration was to psychologically instil that black people are inferior to white people. This goes as far even some of the elderly people in communities always condemning black administration, e.g. potholes, robots not working, garbage collection, street lights, water and sanitation and healthcare. Taking it further is it fair to expect people who live in these conditions to maintain optimistic and to dig deep for energy to paint the houses they received from government even though the same government has failed to provide something which they find more of a necessity. Yes it is true, these minor problems should never exist with todays government but to constantly see such difficult conditions that some people live in in this country also incites pessimism between people, hence the “laziness” of painting the houses.
“Adults who have eroded the black traditions and values and have passed nothing to the next generation”. These adults really owe us (youth) an apology and the irony of the adults to blame in this situation is... it s the same adults who managed to leap-frog the poverty cycle and provide better for their families and generations to come. It is those parents who are to blame for eroding black traditions, the black children in Johannesburg ‘Private’ schools know nothing about their ancestors or homelands. This raises an interesting question, do you blame the parents for whilst they were ploughing a better path for the children to travel inn they forgot about teaching us the fundamental traditions, values and culture about our people or do you blame the black millennials for their current ignorance and lack of knowledge about their own tradition, values and culture it even goes as far as some of them not being able to communicate in their mother tongues xhosa, zulu, sotho, tswana, phedi nix nothing it really is a disgrace actually.
One of the universal values which our people used to share is “Lift as we rise”. We see none of this being practised even in business and even the rich elite business seem to give less back to the communities which they grew up in.
ReplyDeleteThe false expectations being created are largely due to this new wave of thought YOLO (You Only Live Once) and a group of young-professional people who make it seem like living the dream is a simple lifestyle where you spend money on tangible goods before you have acquired any form of wealth, this also contributes to the false expectations. It is very short lived and soon people will realise that it is not the way forward. I would like to classify this group of young people as what some say “young money” but as time moves on this perception will change very soon.
As you mentioned earlier “our white compatriots ... unwilling to give this group any opportunity” surely by this the governments only way to force this upon whites is to exercise their power by doing things like nationalising or creating more Public-Private Partnerships just like the Botswana government in their diamond mines that will be a win win situation. Although it will have ripple effects on the economy and foreign capital investment, but when will the day come where (without being racial about it) Black business (Entrepreneurs) will have enough power to call big shots in our land without being condemned.
There is ample room for the issues discussed to be dealt with. As a part of the Black millennials the first step we should take is to make sure we all well equipped fill the shoes of our white compatriots once the phase “shifting of wealth begins” the only way to be certain that we are well equipped is to make sure we are all graduate at the highest of levels in our specific fields.
Just one the last comment when Steve Biko said “Black man you are on your own” did he mean that individually we are on our own so we should not look to lift our other black brothers as we rise or if we are in a better position than they are, or did Biko mean that we are on our own in the economy and that the sooner we realise this the better because then we will be able to oppose economic challenges together.