Exploring South African Youth Movements

Over the past almost two years, we have undeniably witnessed collapse and lived through cascading crises that have drained hope at a level that feels overwhelming in every way. I know I have found myself frozen, existing in a bit of an interregnum, but unable to quite honestly locate any sense of hope at times. However, in an effort to not succumb to naive/false hope and instead enable myself to be with the pain of the world and still be able to show up in service of the world, I have found solace in the power of student movements.  

I have felt held by a shared resistance to never give up hope and to show up, in whatever capacity possible, with art, our words, our bodies, to do whatever is possible in our power to end the systematic destruction: genocide. This is because that is all I intuitively know this moment demands. It calls for everyone who feels, who witnesses, to exhaust every avenue of resistance available to them. Because what is happening right now—what is being experienced in this very moment—resonates at a frequency of inhumanity that threatens to negate everything we thought we knew about human dignity. If this is possible, if it is possible to be so indoctrinated as to distance yourself from an absolute undeniable truth, then humanity (or whatever notion of beauty associated with humanness) is a fallacy. And this is not limited to direct perpetrators of the pain. This is not just in association with those who hold the guns, fingers on triggers, or those who manufacture those weapons, or those whose funds fuel everything, but it extends to every single human on this rotating marble. Because through our kinship, through what I used to see as beautiful, our interconnectedness, nobody is "free" from this torture. And if we are not doing everything in our absolute power to end what is happening, well then I fear, in my bones, that we have lost everything.

And so, I come back to student movements, and I cling to this resistance knowing it doesn't change what humanness we have lost thus far but in hope it creates space to meet this pain with more of myself intact, in service of this pain.

It's been through this that I have come back to a piece I wrote about 2 years ago, in some ways surprising, in others not, about South Africa's history with student movements. I find myself centering South Africa within this current moment of global resistance, drawing from its example to fuel my own commitment to action. The students who faced a way forward when the world seemed irredeemably broken.

This is what this piece attempts to do: to locate ourselves within that lineage of resistance because if we are to salvage what remains of our shared humanity, it will be through the kind of sustained resistance that students have always known how to do.

In this piece I take a deeper look at South Africa’s unique position within movements advocating for educational transformation, the activism that has transpired as a result of the colonial and apartheid education systems, and the obvious & less so obvious barriers that limit equal access to education but more specifically tertiary education. I take a look at the Black Conscious Movement, the #RhodesMustFall Movement, and #FeesMustFall Movement. Lastly I touch on the key features of these movements individually and collectively to understand the role that they have had on education within the country.

Understanding South Africa’s Education History

I want to begin by laying the ground for our education's history and the conditions that prompted the student movements I explore ahead, but before diving into the history of formalised education within South Africa, I want to note that learning within indigenous cultures far predates our time frames of education. Life in its essence, more than human and human, was central to the ways of living, being, and learning for the indigenous peoples of South Africa, and I invite you to honour the dynamic ways of learning that can be seen throughout history but especially pre-coloniality as you read ahead.

Systemised education within South Africa can be traced back to the 17th century, very soon after Dutch settlers established their first colony on South African soil. This systemised education, exclusive and subjugating as it was to the native people of South Africa, contextualised not only the physical acts of colonisation but the mental as well. If we fast forward a couple of decades, we can see a record of the formalisation of education systems under the British colonial rule within South Africa. This era of formal education and the establishment of the first department of education within the country solidified the power and identities of the British and enabled a new wave of control over the country.

And lastly and most recently, the apartheid government. During apartheid the Bantu education act was passed in an effort to not only segregate African students but made it mandatory for them to attend schools registered under the apartheid government. In other words, Black students now had to attend racially-segregated schools that taught them to act in service of socioeconomic systems that at the very least did not serve them but actually actively hegemonised and persecuted them. Although the Bantu education act was repealed 40+ years ago, the apartheid government and their regime enabled institutional ways of operating that are undeniably woven into current spaces, systems, and government. The educational movements I'm looking at today are excellent examples of the fight against these systemic crises that have prevailed throughout all past colonial and postcolonial reigns of the country.

Lessons from Movements

Black Consciousness Movement (1969-1977)
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The Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) was the culmination of the South African Students Organisation (SASO) which was formed in 1969 by Black South African students who felt that the fight against the oppressive apartheid government should be led by those most affected by the system, Black South Africans. SASO provided the foundation for activists to develop the Black Consciousness Philosophy which in his book, I Write What I Like, Steve Biko, a philosopher and anti-apartheid activist, defines as "An attitude of the mind and a way of life, the most positive call to emanate from the black world for a long time. Its essence is the realisation by the black man of the need to rally together with his brothers around the cause of their oppression - the blackness of their skin - and to operate as a group to rid themselves of the shackles that bind them to perpetual servitude."

It is important to note that the SASO and Biko defined the Black identity in the Black Consciousness philosophy as those who are by law or tradition politically, economically and socially discriminated against as a group in the South African society and identifying themselves as a unit in the struggle towards the realisation of their aspirations (1971). Led by Steve Biko, the movement aimed to be an organisation that would create and implement change for those oppressed under the apartheid government. The shared vision among those in the movement was the mental liberation for the Black people of South Africa in an effort to enable independence, pride and strength in the Black identity under a government that perpetuated a deeply racist culture that alienated African histories, knowledge, and potential.

The BCM fuelled the creation of many anti-apartheid organisations that fought the apartheid regime politically, socially, and systemically. For example, the South African Student Movement (SASM), a Black Consciousness organisation, that played a significant role in the Soweto uprising of June 1976. This protest was against an official order that made Afrikaans the language of instruction in black township schools throughout the country. In honour of the approximately 500 lives lost during this protest due to apartheid police, June 16th is now celebrated as Youth Day in South Africa.
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#RhodesMustFall (2015) A few decades after the BCM and closely linked in its vision, #RhodesMustFall (RMF) was established in March 2015 in response to the long standing monoculturalism of education within South Africa. "RMF wove through intersecting ideas of Black Consciousness, Pan Africanism and Black Radical Feminism as tools of analysis…. It was through the intersection of these cardinal pillars that the movement succeeded in influencing the ways in which the academy thought about the production of new knowledge across South African universities, and abroad" (Dr. Wandile Kasibe, 2021). Within a month of #RhodesMustFall, students from the University of Cape Town (UCT) organised an action to take down an infamous statue of colonial figure, Cecil Rhodes. Cecil Rhodes was one of the leading figures in British imperialism at the end of the 19th Century, pushing the empire to seize control over vast areas of southern Africa (Richard Allen Greene, 2020). Stated in UCT's #RhodesMustFall mission statement: "Its presence erases black history and is an act of violence against black students, workers and staff….The statue was therefore the natural starting point of this movement. Its removal will not mark the end, but the beginning of the long overdue process of decolonising this university. In our belief, the experiences seeking to be addressed by this movement are not unique to an elite institution such as UCT, but rather reflect broader dynamics of a racist and patriarchal society that has remained unchanged since the end of formal apartheid." In response to RMF in South Africa, many institutes globally shared their support through solidarity actions, namely in Oxford where many students expressed and participated in actions, standing with the movement and pushing for the statue of Cecil Rhodes in Oxford to be removed as well. #RhodesMustFall was a pivotal moment within recent South African academic spaces as well as globally. It was a powerful example of young people enacting change and demanding an education that serves them as students of colour, an education beyond the narrow confines of what we have merely inherited from destructive regimes. #FeesMustFall (2015 - 2025) Established a few months after and in solidarity with the #RhodesMustFall movement, the #FeesMustFall (FMF) movement began with students protesting against the high cost of tertiary education, demanding a stop of tuition fee increases and expanding financial support from the government to allow students equal access to education. The movement promoted a discussion on the complexity and history of African people being systematically excluded from institutions, highlighting the limitations and exclusivity of high tuition fees, and linking the conversation to apartheid derived intergenerational inequality and inequity. In drawing a link between high tuition fees and colonialism, decolonisation became central to the FMF movement and vision.

The momentum from RMF, FMF and their united action across the country resulted in a legislative stop of tuition fee increases for the year 2016. The potential of students and the change they can enact was affirmed during this crucial time of youth activism in the country, paving the way for addressing the lingering effects of apartheid systemically and socially.

"Not since the Soweto Uprising of 1976 have this many youth arisen to demand the right to quality and accessible education." (Basani Baloyi and Gilad Isaacs, 2015)
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An overarching theme from these movements is that young people have been at the forefront of taking action and enacting change rooted in justice and liberation. These youth-led movements have been central to the development of education in South Africa and have collectively opened the way for an unlearning and relearning of what education is, what it looks like, and who it serves.

I take inspiration from these movements and will come back to them to affirm in myself that young people are incredibly capable of creating the change they want to see and be in the world; they are resilient, passionate and the actions they take are sacred.