Cape Town - The sound of drums and roaring excitement from young people filled the courtyard of the Castle of Good Hope in commemoration of Youth Day on Friday.
The Youth Day programme saw hundreds of young people from across the Western Cape invited for a day of exploration, play and creativity at the castle.
The Castle Control Board partnered with the Cape Heritage Museum, Balls not Guns and Vuka Nomtobhoyi Children’s Home, among others, for this year’s event, themed “Accelerating collaborations and opportunities to improve the lives of the youth”.
Muizenberg resident Chad Hartnick, 24, works with young people through Balls not Guns and the Abbass Restoration House.
Hartnick said he hoped to see the young learn about their ancestry, become leaders and young pioneers, as well as the implementation of more youth development and skills programmes.
“Youth have the power but most of the youth today are not really focused. They’ve been driven away from it. If you look back at Ashley Kriel and all of them, what they did was radical. They did things that were constructive to build youth and freedom. And in today’s society, I think that is the problem. The youth don't know their real power, they don't know what they are really worth.”
Islamia High School Girls Nasheed choir filled the room with comforting sounds of praise and worship.
Anti-apartheid activist, the Reverend Dr Allan Boesak, delivered the keynote address, with remarks made by the Muslim Students Association (MSA) and the SA Students Congress (Sasco).
As one of the founding members of the United Democratic Front (UDF), Boesak spoke about the formation of the organisation and what it can come to mean for not just oppressed people in South Africa, but globally. This year also marks the 40th year since the formation of the UDF.
Boesak said that the first march organised to reach the gates of Parliament was one by young people and students of Salt River High.
It was also young people who had taken the lead in Soweto in 1976, giving the Struggle for liberation a historic turn, he said.
Sasco CPUT D6 chairperson Asenathi Beje questioned why African history was not reflected in the school syllabus and history books.
“We have books that will tell us about Hitler of Germany. Why are those books not telling us about Thomas Sankara? Why is the history of the African hidden? Why are we not that conscious to find out what it is that the syllabus is hiding from the African indigenous?”
In response, Boesak said: “It's a process that I call unremembering. Unremembering means there are political powers who for political gains and goals, excites parts of history, erase parts of history, distorts parts of history, rewrite parts of history, throw it out altogether to serve the hegemonic dominant narrative. And that's what we are up against.
“It was done by the old apartheid government and to a large extent it's being done by this government. That’s why you don't know about Ashley Kriel, Anton Fransch and you don't know about so many people who made a vital contribution to the Struggle.”