Youth Day Message from the IJR’s Executive Director: 16 June 2024
This year, South Africa commemorates Youth Day under the theme: [...]
The complexity of South African Youth & in particular, that of the Black condition
Throughout the month of June, we saw several youth ‘celebrations’ pertaining to one of the most significant turning points in our history - June 16. We need only to commemorate it as a way to remind ourselves that the struggles which the 1976 youth stood up for, persist today.
A revolution unfolding in the Hearts and Minds of African Youth
The voice of the youth remains largely unheard, under-represented and sometimes only included for formality purposes. And outside these formal and “legitimised” structures, this bulge seems to be mobilising and organising separate from the status quo. However, recent conversations around issues of the youth show that this cohort possess the resilience needed to propel the African continent into its next epoch of progress. Jodi Williams, a Communications and Advocacy Officer at IJR highlights the importance of African Youth working together to create just societies and to build Africa to be the mighty empire it once was.