On Saturday I attended the Cape Flats Book Festival organised by Athol Williams and Taryn Lock, the founders of Read to Rise.
The event hosted an amazing collection of local authors, book collectors and ordinary Cape Town people. Located in the heart of Mitchells Plain, it raised a banner for literacy, reading and storytelling.
The festival itself tells a story of a community that refuses to be defined by a simplex narrative of crime and drugs. Its storytelling and writing abilities are far more powerful than the drugs and gangs it crosses paths with daily.
In 1948, when the National Party came to power and forced its doctrine of apartheid down the throats of the country, it systematically tried to undermine the education of black people.
From separate educational amenities to underfunding of the black child’s education, it made quality education a hard thing to obtain by the black child.
Twenty-eight years later, in 1976, that black child stood up and said no to gutter education. Today, also 28 years after 1994, Read to Rise is standing up for the equal education of every child in this country.
Its rootedness in the metropolis of Mitchells Plain sends a clear signal to everyone that the black child is not to be defined by gangs and drugs. It tells the story of the black child who is defining herself as a writer and storyteller and a retailer of books.
The black child of 1976, who stood up to the 28-year statutory oppression that the apartheid government subjected her to, is the same black child who, in 2022, 28 years after liberation, is standing up to the false narratives that continue to define her future.
All over the festival, I see young people engaging in education. I see young people seeking a better future for themselves.
An honour for me to have helped open the @CapeFlatsBF. An inspiration that will help create more bookworms & budding writers in our province. Congratulations to @ReadtoRise & others who are bringing literature to our communities. pic.twitter.com/oO2PC0ThiO
— Premier Alan Winde (@alanwinde) October 15, 2022
As I ponder this, I keep on thinking about what the adults of 1976 were doing and what we, in 2022, should be doing to aid their struggle to be heard, understood and respected.
What lessons should we learn from 1976 that we, the next “28-year” generation, need to heed to support our youth in their struggle for a respectful, just and prosperous South Africa?
One thing is clear – we need to engage the youth of our day, for like the youth of 1976 they are showing us the way.
We ignore the protests and struggles of the youth of 2022 at our peril. When they tell us fees must fall or that decolonisation of education must take place, I hear the 1976 youth calling on the state to stop giving them gutter education.
Like the mistakes the oppressive adults made in 1976, we are foolishly ignoring the messages they are sending us. And, like the 1976 youth, they won’t tolerate our lack of attention to their voices for much longer.
On Friday morning, as I walked through the central city, I overheard an official parking attendant in a blue and orange bib call out to a driver, “that was perfect parallel parking, lady!”
The woman alighted from her car smiling and registered with the parking attendant for a parking slip. I walked over to them as they were talking and found two South Africans from two different parts of Cape Town in friendly conversation.
She was in business and he was an FET college student, studying accounting and economics. He had taken time out to earn some income to pay for his studies because he could not find a bursary. He did his work with enthusiasm as he talked with us.
“I’m not going to be a failure,” he said. “I’m going to achieve my goal of working in finance.”
Right now he’s parking cars. He is the young person that Read to Rise is reaching with its celebration of education. But he is also the prophet we need to heed. It’s time we listened.
* Lorenzo A Davids.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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