The youth of SA: One Big Social Experiment

Welcome World!

80 days from 2010 and South Africa has a lot of positive thinking to do, to actualise a global event that will showcase a new way to the rest of the world, an African way of thinking, celebrating and living that will offer fresh, living alternatives to some of the outdated ideas that we, for too long, have ascribed to. Well, that's the plan isn't it? 2010, the final countdown, the world and a football, and a return to our shared origins in Africa. That's how I've seen it anyway, in my dreams. But first, let's get some hard evidence that there is indeed some fresh thinking going on down south...

I have long been convinced that my own generation of South Africans is one well worth investigating, debating and considering, in light of our catalytic position in both the history of our own country and in the world at large.

Born in the eighties, we were but babes in arms when the Bad Time in South Africa's history, the cursed A word, was coming to a violent and uncertain end. Now in our twenties, we have been marched, without our formal consent through the painful and yet enlightening process of becoming radically refashioned from one mental paradigm, (the divisive suspicion, even hatred towards the "other" of our parents' generation), towards the united, deracialised thinking of... the ideal future generations of South Africa. And what a dream we dreamed when first we dreamed it. The rainbow nation, a melting pot of cultures, a petri dish for the cultivations of new hybrids, new ideas, new cultures.

The New South African is imagined as a consmopolitan, humane, rational, freindly individual - much like the father of our nation, Nelson Mandela. The New South African is a person who forgives the greatest of injustices with a gracious smile, extending the arm of friendship even in the face of insult and bitterness. A person in the pursuit of moving forward, tirelessly putting one foot before the other on the long walk to freedom.

The new South African is almost saintly in his or her generosity of spirit and actions toward reconcilition. These reconfigured people are now genuinely curious about the other, with no evidence of the war-wounded, crime-scarred, nerve-shattering suspicion of their forebears in their demeanor.

The New South African is a construct developed by the original nation builders, Madiba, Tutu and De Clerk, to give the nation hope for the future, despite that this set of character traits is rare anywhere in the world, and can hardly be programmed into every citizen of a country ripped apart by ancient fueds, bitter rumour and segregatory legislation.

Much to our disappointment, racism and segregation is a natural tendency in human beings, from a past of tribalism and self- and/or community-preservation.

It has struck me that, without our being fully aware of it, my generation is a powerful experiment in human and tribal relations. If we look closely at this group of youngsters, we see that, due, in part, to a genuine hope, along with international, political and media pressure, we have been invited or strong-armed into participating in a mass reprogramming exercise, that, if successful, could spell out interesting findings that could be of interest to the whole world.

The world as a human spaceship, heavily overloaded and facing imminent disaster - the result of insufficeint communication between groups on the spaceship, and mismanagement by those in charge, is at this very time battling to resolve cultural and linguistic issues, and cooperate as one species.

In future updates I will bring to the table some observations and anecdotes of people in "my generation", for comment and discussion. Let us find out what this generation is really about, and what new ideas they have to offer from their experience as Urban Africans in a rapidly Globalising world. What is Ubuntu, and how far can this idea go? Is Ubuntu dead, or dormant waiting for the catalyst, or ever-present as the best in people, and the stuff that makes life living. Umuntu umuntu ngabantu - a person is a person through other people. This blog doesn't exist in isolation, and neither does its writer. I am here because you are, and together, we can do anything, and be anything, even AMAZING! If we want?  

I define this generation as the urban, eductated youth of various backgrounds and ethnicities who now study, live and work alongside each other and are the living, breathing results of a now 15 year old experiment in turning this country around, one mind at a time.

In closing I state my position that I believe it is indeed possible to
Emancipate ourselves from Mental slavery!
and that One Love! is indeed all we got.

Faithfully yours on this very long walk to freedom, Keep Trucking!
Kristi Maria