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South African Youth Day is a commemoration of the June 16, 1976, Soweto uprisings during which 20,000 South African youth protested the compulsory teaching of Afrikaans, along with English enforced by the Bantu Education Department. Thousands of students marched and protested apartheid, mobilized by the South African Student’s Movement. Police violently attacked the students, leading to many injuries and deaths.
Juneteenth is a commemoration of June 19, 1865, the day that many enslaved Africans were informed of the abolishment of slavery. Slavery was abolished on January 1, 1863, but many enslaved Africans in Texas were unaware until the declaration was announced and read by Union soldiers. The abolishment of slavery is often attributed to Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. However, slavery’s abolishment was due to the yeoman’s work of African freedom fighters and abolitionists that were engaged in an on-going struggle for freedom in the Americas. Their activism, heroism, uprisings, and organizing, disrupted any possible future of chattel slavery.
This year South African Youth Day and Juneteeth occur during the same week. In the midst of worldwide protests concerning police brutality and other forms of oppression against African people, we find it fitting to host a conversation with African/Black youth activists. We’re hoping these conversations are useful for coalition building and as we move closer to global liberation through the enactment of Pan Africanism. The African/Black youth activists featured are from around the world and represent a range of experiences.
