By Noé Hochet-BodinPosted on 26-04-2019Modified on 26-04-2019 at 00:33
They are 25 years old or younger and have never known the lead scythe of the racist regime of apartheid. They are the representatives of the new generation of South Africans, the generation to whom Nelson Mandela has promised the rainbow nation. RFI offers you a dive into the world of born free, this "free" generation that must build a new South Africa on the scars of apartheid.
Build on a painful story
In front of the famous Johannesburg Apartheid Museum, a succession of tourist buses. Families from all over Europe come to see the hell that millions of South African Blacks, Indians and half-breeds have lived through for half a century.
One flat. Few South African visitors. And even fewer young people to visit the galleries that trace the struggle of Mandela, Sisulu, Tambo, Biko and the other figures of the struggle.
So, is it a lack of interest of the born free ? A lack of means? Or too difficult access to their story? Melusi Pooe, 20, a student in logistics at the University of Johannesburg, blames the taboo that prevails in history programs. " Since my 14 years, I know the smallest details of the taking of the Bastille and the life of Louis XVI, but we learn nothing about the history of the continent and South Africa, he admits . I wish that in the future we would be taught more about our own history, our roots . A wish that the Ministry of Education seems to have heard a few months ago by imposing history as a compulsory discipline until the final year.
Because this is the dilemma of the born free . How to feel free in a post-apartheid society where all the symptoms and inequalities created by the racist regime are still visible. " As for example in Sandton ," says young documentary filmmaker Siphamandla Bongwana, referring to the ultramodern business district in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg. Sandton and its skyscrapers, Africa's richest district, is just one kilometer from Alexandra, the poorest and most dangerous township in the province . "
Racial inequalities always the same
In today's South Africa, economic inequalities are turning a blind eye. The rainbow nation is officially the " most unequal country in the world, " according to the World Bank last year. With two particularly targeted groups, blacks and young people. More than one out of every two South African black lives in a township . More than one in two young people are unemployed. Finally, out of 100 poor, 93 are black.
" We are politically free, because we can vote, but we are not free economically, " Siphamandla repeats this phrase frantically, he who thinks to vote for the radical party of the EFF "(" The Fighters of economic freedom "). " I know our mothers will tell us that it was much worse under apartheid. They fought against racist laws, as when they had to present their Dom Pass, he admits . But we do not feel free at all. We are launching another war today. That to be economically free ".
When he came to power in 1994, Nelson Mandela's party promised a clear improvement in the living conditions of blacks. With three reforms. A system of positive discrimination in companies, the redistribution of land and the construction of millions of homes for township residents. Of these three unfulfilled promises, none will have been enough to call into question the order established by apartheid.
In South Africa, wealth is always white. According to the Treasury, 23% of the economy is owned by the black majority (80% of the population), against 39% by the South African whites. A visible gap that " distorts " relations between different communities, says Sazi, a student in Johannesburg. " For some, it's always considered a privilege to be able to talk to whites, but it's already a norm for others ," he says. Interacting with whites is supposed to be normal. There is nothing wrong with that. But there is always this feeling of segregation between the two races .
What hope for black youth?
The other burning debate, that of the lands. The ANC promised to redistribute them by expropriating white farmers. An election promise that is struggling to materialize. " The key to our freedom, " according to Thembi, a 22-year-old union leader from rural Limpopo. " How do you want us to feel born free when our land does not belong to us ? Democracy and freedom rhyme with reclaiming our lands, "she says, before qualifying the celebrations of 25 years of democracy as" fiction ".
Siphamandla was born in the shantytown of Kliptown, a place steeped in the history of the Soweto township , where Mandela and the other ANC figures wrote the Freedom Charter in 1955, a true declaration of human rights in the South. African. Today, Siphamandla's family lives in the same miserable conditions as during the apartheid era. The same huts of fortune. The same mud on the feet. The same fallen hopes. " In 1994, my parents received a letter of promise to access government housing," he says. We are still waiting today. A reality for millions of South Africans.
Despite positive discrimination policies and the revival of the black movement of consciousness, the future may seem bleak for these born free . Their unemployment rate rises to 52%. A figure that should not be reversed given the economic recession that struck South Africa last year. More worrying, the born free do not mobilize en masse to vote on May 8. Only six out of ten registered on the electoral lists. Not enough to " change the established order " as Siphamandla would like.
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