Reflecting on the misnaming of June 16 as 'National Youth Day', the writer, Sandile Ngidi, calls for a renewed understanding of the 1976 uprisings and their importance in shaping the identity and activism of today's youth.
I strongly believe that the original Government of National Unity erred terribly in 1994 when it named the holiday honouring the June 16, 1976 students revolt "National Youth Day". The overzealous imperatives of nation building blinded even the brightest amongst us. But this is how we succeeded in undermining the reparative, symbolic weight that a day like June 16 should hold in the collective imagination of all South Africans.
Since the black-majority government led by the ANC did not change this travesty when the 1994 GNU collapsed in 1996, June 16 continues to be another braai and booze day, now also often confused with a famous ultramarathon during which a disciplined few among us hit the road, while many others take it easy, cheer the runners, chase the dogs, braai… and booze from morning till sunset. No wonder this critical landmark in South African history is fast becoming a fuzzy memory, a minor altercation whose substantive details are better left buried if not ridiculed. As if black history does not matter.
