The Student Revolution is near...

The Student Revolution is near........

( written by Modibe J Modiba) 

21 years into our relatively young democracy, black students from all corners of our economically untransformed country are beginning to ask the right questions and are pressing the correct buttons. Unfortunately, it's still black students who are finding it difficult to survive in higher learning institutions and are forever reminded of what it really means to be young and black in this country. 

Truth be told, many of South African universities are anti-black! I mean UCT is anti-black, Wits is anti-black, so is UFS, UP, NWU (potchefstroom), Rhodes University as well as the notorious pro-Afrikaans Stellenbosch University just to name a few.

Let's be honest, with all these student protests taking place across the country, one can only be reassured that as black students we are sick and tired of being spectators in our own god-given country, we are tired of feeling as if we a being "accommodated" on our own land, we've realized that white privilege should be fought with all we have and that its time we started fighting for what rightfully belongs to us. 

Every year it's black students who get financially excluded, it's black students who get failed by NSFAS, it's black students who get given a colonised curriculum, who walk around all these racist imperialist institutions and are constantly reminded of their suffering and misery, as well as the fact that, It's black students who face extreme cases of racism on a daily basis and all these have contributed to the awakening of black students across the country who are now ready for a revolution. 

South Africans must also understand that non-partisan movements such as #RhodesMustFall and #OpenStellies for example play a crucial role not only in higher learning institutions but in our societies as a whole, it is therefore very important to note that when students called for the statue of Rhodes to be removed from the University Of Cape Town or when students at Stellenbosch started protesting about the pro-Afrikaans language policy, it wasn't about just removing the statue or fighting Afrikaans on the other hand, but it was about fighting the status quo, fighting institutionalized racism, decolonising the curriculum and to spark a necessary national debate

As an ordinary black child from any black household, I know how education is forever stressed by elders and how you're made to realize from an early age that education is important and that it's the only way out for the black child. But yet again, with all this institutionalized racism happening in higher learning institutions, is there really any hope for the black child? 

It's therefore very evident that South Africa is headed for a revolution which will undoubtedly be led by black students from across the country and that we as students mean serious business and that those who are reluctant to transformation, are in serious trouble. 

What interesting times it is to be young and black, The Student Revolution is near.