By Indiphile Matini, Youth Ambassadors for Climate Change Programme Coordinator, Social Change Assistance Trust
Power of youth activism
Throughout history, the tenacity and drive of young people to organise and dismantle oppressive systems of power has been documented and taught to future generations of changemakers. The 1976 Soweto Uprising, spearheaded by young people was a catalyst to the downfall of the Apartheid system in South Africa; the 2016 #FeesMustFall movement shed light on the continued inequality and inaccessibility of tertiary education for the vast majority of young people in the country; and in the same year Gauteng students’ advocacy against discriminatory hair policies led to the suspension of these policies, exposing biases still imbedded within school policies.
However, despite compelling evidence that youth can shape the future, there is a growing narrative around the lack willingness of young people to get involved in reshaping society. In South Africa, the idea of youth participation is often viewed through a lens of disruption, recklessness or more recently, a simple unwillingness to participate. So, then I ask: when did ‘youth’ become synonymous with ‘violence’ or ‘complacency’? In what rooms and on what platforms can our creativity and energy be harnessed productively? Whom of us will be allowed to speak? Who decides who is left behind?
Trust and authentic youth participation
A steady increase in the demand for youth participation in development spaces and social change discourse has seen young people taking ownership of the spaces they occupy to mobilise and create a strong youth network. However, these efforts often come as a result of being excluded in discussions where decisions for and about youth are made. And in some cases, the presence of a young person in these rooms may not be authentic, feeding into the culture of tokenism, where the reputational integrity of groups, organisations or institutions is the priority. I believe this has also widened the gap between authentic youth participation and collaboration with broader structures.
True youth participation requires alignment with the cause, understanding why the action is important to the youth, and is best cultivated when traditional methods of activism are adapted to be expansive, creative and inclusive. Trust plays an important role in the authentic participation of youth. When authority figures have not displayed trust in young people to participate or take charge in social movements, the result has often been alienation. In retaliation, youth-led initiatives grow in number and encourage a sense of collective identity, which is crucial in addressing social ills. Youth-led movements such as Equal Education have consistently shown the effectiveness of mobilising at all levels to influence policies in South Africa. Their mass mobilisation, which has been sustained for 15 years, successfully brings together youth, parents and teachers, communities, government officials and legal entities to ensure quality education is accessed by as many learners at grassroots level as possible.
Regardless of the demonstrated capability of youth to engage critically with socially unjust systems, young people have to continue fighting for a seat at the table where decisions are made that shape their future.
Shaping the future through innovation
Sustainable change cannot happen when all actors work independently, and holistic system change is impossible when the links between various social ills are not acknowledged and addressed. The youth play a particularly important role in the development of society and the systems that govern it. Young people present the opportunity for societies to question the effectiveness of their systems and their ability to sustain the future. We straddle the line between past and present and can shape what future generations inherit.
To achieve all that it has, Equal Education, for example, incorporated traditional methods with digital mobilising. Young people participated in film training programmes, producing documentary films that can be watched online and shared with both digital and physical communities. This shows, that amidst evolving challenges under rigid structures, our methods of collaboration and engagement in working towards changing those structure should also evolve. While we celebrate and encourage the diversity of communities, we are aware that this diversity and uniqueness is seldom considered when shaping policies that affect us all. It is not only to foster inclusion that young people should be involved in discussions that lead to social change, but because we will have to live with the impact thereof.
Valuable contributions to climate change discourse
Climate change and the growing advocacy around adaptation and mitigation has shown disconnection at different levels of the system and raises questions about the preparedness of global governing bodies to address the impact of climate change on people and communities. The Global South has a large population of youth, with Africa having the youngest population in the world. We are also at the highest risk of climate related disasters, many of which are playing out today in the form of droughts and floods in rural parts of Africa, and extreme storms and heatwaves in Asia.
The experience of these disasters has rendered our future uncertain, making our participation and collective action even more necessary. However, global climate policies are developed and implemented by leaders who often do not fully grasp the experiences of the people, particularly youth, at grassroots level. As such, we run the risk of implementing strategies that are not made for the Global South or the Global Majority, diminishing our ability to better adapt and redevelop. We need to use current opportunities, and we should include youth, to paint accurate pictures of how climate change impacts developing countries. Armed with education, networks and greater accessibility to information and the global community, young people can make valuable contributions to climate change discourse and bridge the gaps for those who come after us.
Creating spaces to actualise youth agility , creativity and innovation
As youth, in order for our ideas to be harnessed, we must be given the platform for engagement with leaders at all levels of the system. Those of us who are presented with the opportunities to speak at levels outside of what we are we used to, must remember that it is important to be authentic and we have to point towards many others who deserve to be on the same platforms.
We cannot be praised for our resilience and agility, our creativity and innovations when they can only be actualised in the corners we have been pushed into. How can our voices be heard when we are silenced? How can our voices be heard when they are framed to fit unfamiliar narratives? Africa is a young continent, unique and dynamic in its way of being. Our policies and programmes must reflect this, with young people leading the action to create sustainable change.
We must build and capacitate those already making strides to mobilise and restructure the systems that imprison and alienate us. We must remove the barriers that allow entry to a select few. It is time to pass the baton and secure our collective futures.