Today’s Human Rights Day is meant to be the remembrance and celebration of those 69 who lost their lives protesting against the pass law system. These protests took place on the 21 March 1960 in Sharpeville, Gauteng. It is a day to remember why we, as South African citizens, have human rights in the Bill of Rights according to chapter 2 of the constitution.
This event shaped the South African political landscape and gave the rest of the world a face to what was happening during the apartheid regime.
Why then, is there a sense of ignorance or lack of knowledge among some of the youth on why we celebrate this day in March?
Tristan Human (21), a viticulture and oenology student at Stellenbosch University (SU), said he knew absolutely nothing about the holiday and that for him it is purely that: a public holiday.
Natalie Marthinus (23), who is studying social dynamics, said Human Rights Day comes from a day when people fought for freedom but she did not know where or when.
Protesters at Sharpeville discard their pass books. PHOTO: Creative Commons
Director of Social Impact and Transformation at SU, Dr Leslie Van Rooi, says it is down to a matter of personal interest. Van Rooi alludes to the fact that rights are selfish: only when a person’s specific language or culture are affected, will the day be significant.
“The people that understand and know about the historic realities of Sharpeville, I think, will understand the significance of it historically. It is a day to remember that at a stage in this country, rights were limited.
“Certain sections of the population had more rights than others and so people had to literally fight to be full citizens of our country, and for people with no understanding and value of history, it [Sharpeville] will have no meaning.”
Van Rooi says that as a nation we tend to view our history as a very negative event and thus choose to ignore it. We tend to not want to be reminded of something bad that happened to people before us, as we don’t want to feel guilty. South Africans tend to block these events out.
“Even if you were taught it at school, if you couldn’t make the connection with your own life and your own story or your own realities then it will become something fringe, something you do not take seriously.”
This attitude or mindset, he says, is dangerous as it could allow for the opposite to happen whereby we repeat history and our mistakes. The argument is to have a full catalogue of the past, specific to your own culture in order to understand the current societal landscape.
“It is only when we think that we lose it [human rights] or think that we don’t have it, that we start to wonder about it” said Van Rooi.
There needs to be a culture whereby the university is constantly keeping the student body informed through active conversation on current topics so they can form a substantiated opinion.
On the topic of why most of the youth in South Africa are uninformed on where our constitutional rights come from, he said in any context where you do not need to be concerned with worrying about not having rights, people forget about the value of a document like the constitution.
“We are aware that it [the constitution] exists and that it is powerful within the context of this country, but not how it was stitched together and how it came about and what it actually says.
“That is education, if we are not educated on the matter, then how will we know.”
Van Rooi recommends that any documentary relating to Sharpeville must be seen even if one cannot relate to it and even if it questions one’s identity. He says being reminded of something does not take away from your own understanding of it but rather adds to it as you attempt to understand something from a new perspective.
“If you understand the history, at least you can partake in a conversation of why ‘that’ is true and why ‘that’ is not true. If you don’t understand the history then you can only argue with what you think you know of the now and that is never complete.”