The Sunday News
Lifaqane Nare
It was a day that began like any other but on that day about 10 000 black students marched in a column almost a kilometre long protesting against the poor quality of education in their schools and demanding the right to be taught in their own languages and not Afrikaans as was being proposed.
This day ended with hundreds of students shot and some dead.
The picture of 18-year-old Mbuyisa Makhubo carrying 16-year-old Hector Pieterson, dying after being shot at while they protested against the teaching of Afrikaans in schools, is one that is brought to mind when this day in particular and youth activism in general are discussed.
It is a picture showing the power that young people working in unity together for a common cause have.
June 16, the Day of the African Child, has kept this picture alive in most people’s minds.
“It’s good that we remember this day. It’s not only about the South African youths but about what a group of people can do if they come together. Young people today need to reflect and see what their purpose in their generation is.
“There are lessons to be learnt from history even as we are daily confronted by new struggles of our times,” said Regina Mlauzi, a young woman of 25.
Today Africa has the youngest population in the world: a population that has the potential to change the fortunes of the continent.
It is estimated that by year 2050, almost one in three of the world’s children under 18 will be African.
As the continent commemorates this day, it is time to discuss how this potential can be harnessed to make the resources of the continent benefit the continent itself instead of being taken out raw and coming back as expensive finished products.
“Africa has the potential to grow because of its young population that is a readily available workforce as well as a market for its goods.
“The continent today is being bled of its resources that go out as raw materials, get processed in the West and when they come back as value added goods they are out of the reach of many,” said economist Bhekimpilo Khanye.
“Africa’s growing youth population comes with high energy, creativity and talents which are key to the continent’s future prosperity,” he added.
The day of the African Child has been commemorated since 1991 when it was initiated by the then Organisation of African Unity.
The day is meant to provide a platform for discussing challenges facing the full realisation of the rights of children in Africa.
Children’s rights defender, Edna Chibanda, said when countries are faced with challenges usually children’s rights are the first to suffer.
“Many times when ends fail to meet, families will sacrifice children’s needs for the greater good.
“We take away children’s rights to be children and overnight they become heads of households when their parents leave for greener pastures.
“We also sacrifice children’s right to education when we try to balance it with the need to keep the family clothed and fed,” she said.
Chibanda, however, acknowledges that Zimbabwe has made significant strides towards protecting children’s rights in the new Constitution.
“The new Constitution has made significant changes to the way children are treated at law.
“These changes are meant to protect them and also make it easier for them to get such documents as birth certificates and access basic education,” she said.
Currently, the country is running campaigns to end child marriages. A similar campaign has been carried out on the whole continent since May 2014.
According to African Union statistics, one in three girls in low and middle income countries is married by the age of 18.
As the continent commemorates the Day of the African Child it is imperative that in this month, leaders and young people engage to discuss the problems of young people in Africa which include unemployment, mobilisation of resources to develop the continent as well as how to guard the gains that the continent has made from breaking from the colonial powers.
