Soweto Uprising Essay

The 1976 Soweto Uprising began as diplomatic resistance to the requirement that Afrikaans serve as the primary language of instruction for black pupils in their schools. Police brutality used in an effort to forcibly put an end to the demonstrations caused them to turn violent. In the end, numerous students suffered severe injuries and tens of them perished due to police harassment. (Ndlovu, 2006). 2015 saw a number of Fallist uprisings that were also organized by students in a fight for their rights, nearly 40 years after the Soweto Uprising. The fees must fall campaigns started at the University of Witwatersrand in reaction to the up-surging fees and later went across to other big universities around the country (Booysen, 2016). This campaign was inspired by the preceding Rhodes Must Fall initiative as well as the rejuvenated student activism in the country. Both of these movements fronted by students have similarities and differences as it is illustrated in this section of the paper.

The Fees Must Fall campaign was among the largest student protests in South Africa, and it draws comparisons with the Soweto Uprising of the year 1976. In both of the incidents, black youths are fighting with the government in a bid to protect their interests. Forty years later after the Soweto Uprising, it is the same discourse of people fighting the police while the elder generations are not bothered by the issues agitating the youths (Pillay, 2016). The fact that in both campaigns black youths were actively involved shows the picture of an agitated group of people who seek change in the society. In both events, elder people are not actively involved and hence within the African society; there is the notion that it is upon the youths to make an impact in the society because the future belongs to them.

A majority of the students who were arrested during the Fallist Movements were children of former anti-apartheid activists who had struggled for democracy and were physically beaten, arrested, and jailed for their relentless quest. For the students, the 2015 campaigns were all about the accomplishment of real economic and social changes that their preceding counterparts were pushing for in the year 1976 (Pillay, 2016). It is evident that both of these events are interconnected, and there is a sense in which both discourses of these people have similar ideas towards an ideal society. They are all fighting for the achievement of somewhat congruent results at the end of their struggles. There is a continuation of a push for social justice from one generation to the next because the forty year difference shows a parent-child situation (Pillay, 2016). This implies that over that time, it has been impossible to achieve the change that has been sought for a long time.

Both the Fallist movements of 2015-16 and Soweto Uprisings of 1976 were education-oriented because they were centered on students and issues pertaining to their learning environs. The initial uprisings were opposing a racial medium of delivery of education in the schools whole the recent campaigns sought to decolonize the university campuses (Pillay, 2016). This shows that both the colonial and post-colonial governments have not managed to establish a stable education system that is oriented towards suiting all the needs of students. It is a relationship which means that the ruling administrations have not been keen on investing in the country’s schooling arrangement and hence there are problematic gaps in the entire system. After 40 years, the so referred to as “born frees,” people who did not experience apartheid, are fighting to access education as their counterparts had done four decades ago. It is a show of potentially detrimental perpetual issues within the South African education system (Pillay, 2016).

In both of these protests, there were elements of violent clashes between the students and police officers. However, the 1976 protests were characterized by more severe police brutality on students as compared to the Fallist Movements of 2015. In 1976, students engaged police in street battles that saw the law enforcing officers open fire to unarmed learners. Tens of students were shot dead, and others seriously injured at the end of the demonstrations (Pillay, 2016). In the 2015 protests, a majority of the students did not behave themselves violently to other people who were not participating in the demonstrations. In their thousands, they marched to Africa National Congress (ANC) party’s headquarters without significant incidents of commotion, and they distanced themselves from actions of vandalism and violence (Pillay, 2016). However, some of them were arrested for agitating their counterparts in engaging in the protests. This shows that just like 40 years before, there were still elements of trying to defeat justice through silencing the people who had the audacity to confront unfair and unjust regimes.

The Soweto Uprising brought about a challenge to two grounds of the apartheid control over black people, and these were the Bantu Education and control or black people’s lives within the townships. This means that the campaign was way beyond the education system and it sought to address larger societal issues. The fact that Afrikaans was reserved for black students means that there were high levels of discrimination between the whites and native occupiers of the land. It is a factor which brings out a major difference between the Soweto Uprising and Fees Must Fall campaign (Du Preez, Simmonds & Chetty, 2017). The latter primarily focused on matters relating to educational charges but not other added social problems that rocked the larger society as a whole.

The Soweto Uprising resulted in two significant shifts in the brawl between the apartheid state and students. The first shift was that of the movement of the battleground from the classroom setting to the streets in a show of a struggle for control over space. Also, the uprising resulted in a significant change in the political awareness of students. It was not the case for the Fallist Movements of 205-16. There lacked such drastic shifts because the two events happened under different circumstances and dynamics (Du Preez, Simmonds & Chetty, 2017). The Soweto Uprisings were a struggle for control of space because none of the parties in the confrontation was willing to compromise for a neutral position. On the other hand, the government is seen to be diplomatic enough and gives in to the demands of students to halt increasing university fees.

In the year 1976, students were fighting against an extremely violent and oppressive regime, and they put their lives to risk in a bid to be allowed to study in English because it is the language that they could learn and comprehend easily. In the year 2015, students had the legal rights of protesting and airing their opinions, a condition that was not present four decades before. It is clear that there is stark between the two events in terms of the privilege accorded to these individuals (Du Preez, Simmonds & Chetty, 2017). Previously, it was considered as a criminal activity while in the recent times, it was a lawful endeavor, given the fact that it is done peacefully and in an orderly manner. Since the two administrations had different sets of rules regarding the issue of picketing and demonstrating against certain issues in the society, there were differences in the outcomes of these events. For the Soweto Uprising, the government with its instruments of power could exercise them on the people exclusively and in-discriminatively. It is the case because it was a colonial and autocratic system of governance which did not consider the opinions of all people in the society (Du Preez, Simmonds & Chetty, 2017). Contrary to that factor, the Jacob Zuma led government is a democracy and hence it provides for people to exercise their freedom of speech without imposing sanctions and oppression measures on them.

Both the Soweto Uprising and Fallist Movements were geared towards addressing issues in the South African education system. Students are seen fighting in a bid to access education in both incidences, and they are confronting the reigning administrations to address their issues. There is a sense in which both the colonial and independent governments are seen to fail in the management of the education system in the country. The main difference between the two protests is the Soweto Uprising was broader and covered a lot of social issues including racism while the Fallist Movements mainly looked into academic issues (Du Preez, Simmonds & Chetty, 2017). Further, the uprising happened under the colonial and autocratic leadership where it was deemed unlawful while the Fallist Movements were legal and approved by the independent government.

Third Wave of Africa Protests

On 30th October 2014, thousands of people converged on Burkifaso’s parliament, protesting against President Compaore’s effort to amend the constitution and award himself with an additional term in office. After a massive destruction of property and impossibility of the armed forces to contain the citizens, the president resigned (Honwana, 2014). Similar incidences were experienced in Burundi at that time and there have been seen similar events in the Republic of Kenya in the past few weeks. The third wave of protests in Africa has been mainly against the governments in power to oppose their failures in service delivery and greed of holding on to power. In these protests, not all the youths are engaged in the physical protests; others portray dissatisfaction through hip-hop culture, and this section of the paper looks into the opportunities and challenges of the social commentary of the pop culture approach to the third wave of protests in Africa (Honwana, 2014). Also, this part of the study looks into the increasing number of informal entrepreneurs and street hawkers in relation to fresh empowerment or increasing neoliberal precarity.

For a substantial time now, Hip-hop music has been largely used as an avenue for protests and social commentary. It is perceived as the music for the oppressed people who have from time to time used it to convey their expression in a bid to create awareness of problematic issues such as gang violence, police brutality, racism, and other social problems facing the people. In this sense, the youths avoid engaging in violence and physical confrontations with the authorities in the streets. Music is known to pass a wide range of messages to the people even those in powerful and leadership positions (Honwana, 2014). For this reason; the youths have the opportunity to communicate to the reigning regimes through the talent of singing with the messages of dissatisfaction, intolerance, and divisions within the larger society.

Hip-hop music offers a platform for the poor people and marginalized youths an avenue to self-empowerment and offers a dispensation platform for their frustrations. The music is all about content creation and a rhythmical presentation to the people for both entertainment and educational purposes. In the process, youths keep themselves engaged in composing their messages through lyrics and video production captions which depict the situation within the society in question.

Through the musical presentation of the prevalent conditions in Africa, youths have the potential to influence the manner in which people in powerful and leadership positions address their grievances in the long run (Honwana, 2014). Without the art of hip-hop music and creativity involved in it, the young people could dispense the energy they have on violent protests which puts peaceful coexistence within the African society in jeopardy. Violent confrontation result in loss of lives and property and for this reason; it is important to recognize the significance of hip-hop music in engaging youth protests peaceably and decently.

In the recent and present times, hip-hop music has received significant media coverage in Africa and for this reason; it has a broad range of audiences ranging from the average people to the elite members of the society. This means that the message contained in the songs is far-reaching and impacts on the ways in which people perceive life in different quarters of the society. With the influence and mentorship of Western artists, African musicians are now creating rap music that is coherent and enjoyable to listen to for both entertainment and awareness creation purposes (Honwana, 2014). African artists are producing songs both in international and local languages and for this reason they are understood by almost all people in the different walks of life. They have a potentially productive aspect of educating the masses through the content that they incorporate in their songs.

There is the issue of hip-hop music empowering both the male and female artists equally. It is clear that the male artists are more empowered by the music as compared to the female ones who are also doing fairly well. The female artists are less in number than their male counterparts in the music industry. For instance in a country such as Mauritania, N’dat Bouwaner is the only prominent female hip-hop artist in the country. She is critical of the reigning regime, and when she makes a media appearance, she is restricted to speaking about other matters but not politics (York, 2015). The moment she tries to talk about police brutality of racism in the West African nation, she is stopped, or the host immediately changes the topic of discussion. The artist’s family disapproved of her choice of career, but the music was her sound of freedom and self-expression in the society. Looking at other countries such as Burkina Faso, Angola, and Morocco, male artists have been successful enough in passing political messages to the people. They have even formed movements such as that which fell President Compaore’s regime; it was led by a rapper known as Serge Bambara. In this sense, it is evident that the female musicians are not given an equal platform as their male counterparts, or they are not proactive enough like the men in this industry (York, 2015).

In Africa, Hip-hop music is a critique of neoliberalism, a factor that is threatened by the emergence of Hip Life in Ghana and Bongo Flava in Tanzania (Clark, 2012). Other than these two dynamics, there are different current changes that are taking place within the African society that suppress the known impact of Hip-hop music in the continent’s political affairs. Over time, artists are losing interest in criticizing the governments and pointing out the wrongdoings within the larger society. Some of them are doing it out of free will; others do not see fruition despite their relentless efforts while there are others that are intimidated by the powerful regimes to shun their quest for justice and change in the political systems (Perullo, 2005). Dynamics such as the emergence of Bongo Flava in Tanzania are greatly detrimental to rap culture that is instrumental in criticizing the government and other sectors of the social setting that is corrupt. It is the case because at the moment, entire East Africa listens to this genre and hence hip-hop does not count much when it comes to messaging delivery to the people in the present day context.

In Africa, the increasing informal economic sectors are attributed to weak employment conditions and high levels of poverty in the different developing countries. They cannot be termed as empowerment projects because these small-scale traders are not supported by governments in a bid to help them in establishing decent business structures (Hansen, 2010). It is through lack of needs and wants that the small-scale traders find themselves in the streets hawking petty products to earn a livelihood. The contributions made by these sectors to the national and international economies are negligible and miscellaneous, and in this sense, they cannot make significant changes in the larger economies (Hansen, 2010). For this reason; it is erroneous to assert that the increment in the number of street hawkers gestures a possibility of looming increase in neoliberal precarity. Rather, these informal entrepreneurship indicate that there is the element of unemployment in Africa, both at national and continental contexts of economic operations. It is the case because these small-scale traders are not gainfully employed in their informal settings of business.

Hip-hop music has been an instrumental tool in social commentary in Africa for a long time. In the third wave of protests in Africa, youths have largely engaged the governments through rap other than participating in violent and confrontational demonstrations. The music has been used to point out political and social issues that require prompt actions by the people in powerful and leadership positions in the society. It has received a broad media coverage and hence the messages cut across the board in the society. However, hip-hop has been suppressed by the dynamics of life and music in Africa, and it is not a strong political tool at the moment. Female artists are not as vocal as their male counterparts in the industry. The increasing informal sectors in Africa are attributed to weak economies, unemployment, and high poverty levels that drive people to the streets to conduct the informal businesses.

References

Booysen, S. (Ed.). (2016). Fees must fall: Student revolt, decolonisation and governance in South Africa. Wits University Press.

Clark, M. K. (2012). Hip hop as social commentary in Accra and Dar es Salaam. African Studies Quarterly, 13(3), 23.

Du Preez, P., Simmonds, S., & Chetty, D. J. (2017). Critical transformation in higher education: Ethical reflections on#< ustfall movements and concomitant gender-based violence. South African Journal of Higher Education, 31(6), 96-112.

Hansen, K. T. (2010). Changing youth dynamics in Lusaka's informal economy in the context of economic liberalization. African Studies Quarterly, 11(2/3), 13.

Honwana, A. (2014). Youth, waithood, and protest movements in Africa. In African Dynamics in a Multipolar World: 5th European Conference on African Studies—Conference Proceedings (pp. 2428-2447). Centro de Estudos Internacionais do Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL).

Ndlovu, S. M. (2006). The Soweto Uprising. The road to democracy in South Africa, 2, 1970-1980.

Perullo, A. (2005). Hooligans and heroes: Youth identity and hip-hop in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Africa Today, 51(4), 75-101.

Pillay, S. R. (2016). Silence is violence: (critical) psychology in an era of Rhodes Must Fall and Fees Must Fall.

York, G. (2015). Hip-hop music speaking for Africa’s disenfranchised youth. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 15 December 2017, from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/hip-hop-music-speaking-for-africas-disenfranchised-youth/article27922096/