Day 4: South Africa Day

The drum beats hard with the rise of the morning sun.

A call for the heart of the beaten but not defeated young activist to rise.

Rise above all resistance.

Rise to heights unknown. 

Rise in their numbers...

Rise young activist, rise!

South Africa Day, December 16 marks a day of relentless courage and enormous bloodshed. A day in South African history we'd love to forget. A day in 1838 where 1000's of spear-laden Zulu Warriors met their bitter end at the hands of a gun-firing and much bigger Voortrekker Army. The Battle of Blood River will forever be a stain in our history that will burn in our hearts for as long as a rift of injustice still lingers in our society.

To the ANC, the December 16, 1961will be remembered as the day they took up arms to take back the country of their ancestors and rid South Africa of Apartheid.

As for December 16, 2010, the day began on a far more pleasant note with fewer complaints and less problems until a horde of COPE members gate-crashed the party. COPE who had initially shown no interest in attending the festival arrived chanting songs of favour for their leader, Mr Mosiuoa Lekota. Unfortunately their arrival without the necessary accreditation caused a stir which quickly had to be extinguished by the available security.

The rest of the day proved to be less dramatic but equally as emotive. Tribal dancers, celebrity guests and many other entertainers including Spokazi and Bricks performed spectacularly flying the South African flag high for all to see. That spirit of unity that usually trickles through the veins of South Africans during world cups transcended into 10’s of thousands of youth that filled the Tshwane Events Centre.

DAY 3: AMERICA DAY

“My mother was a kitchen girl; my father was a garden boy; that’s why I am a communist (pronounced ‘comm-a-nist’)” rings the freedom songs of social activists and Marxists who cry out for the land and freedom that has been unjustly taken from them. Now, if your parents were never subjected to these humiliating and shameful career paths or if their names were not changed to fit the convenience of the colonialist rule it is understandable why you wouldn’t be able to relate to this R49 million cause.


Through the ages, dignified men and women of all races, demographics and cultures have been subjected to the knee-scathing humiliation and belittlement by people with money mostly on land that belonged to them and usually with the use of the cultural resource (minerals etc) that belonged to that land. As to whether or not the intentions of the colonialist were to steal this land and enforce their cultures onto the native people of these lands is not the point. The point is that native people all over the world have always been forced to deny their heritage and deem their very cultures inferior of those of their oppressors in order to accommodate these hostile takeovers.


America Day provided the people of Latin America, Canada, and those in the US, who have always disagreed with the manner in which their government forces its military power and ideologies on other countries, with an opportunity to share their cultures, practises and the initiatives that they take to rewrite the injustices that the US and other world powers have enforced on them. Currently at the top of the all this mayhem is the plight for the Cuban 5 to be released by the US: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Five.What is interesting to note is that the current President of the USA, President Barack Obama had assured the Cuban community of America that upon his election he would help facilitate the release of the 5. To date that has still not happened. Eight international Nobel Prize winners have written and sent a document to the US Attorney General calling for freedom for the Cuban Five, signed by Zhores Alferov (Nobel Prize for Physics, 2000), Desmond Tutu (Nobel Peace Prize, 1984), Nadine Gordimer (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1991), Rigoberta Menchú (Nobel Peace Prize, 1992), Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (Nobel Peace Prize, 1980), Wole Soyinka (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1986), José Saramago (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1996), Günter Grass (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1999)



Though this day was a day for the Americas, Western Sahara (Saharawi) took the radical opportunity to march to the Moroccan embassy and demand their liberation from torment and suffering that the Moroccan government has subjected on them for many years. Recently 5 Saharawi comrades were arrested by the Moroccan government for attempting to attend this youth conference.

As you can see, this youth and student festival isn’t just about youth coming together and celebrating ideas, but also to address socio-economic and the unfair representation of young people around the world.

Day 2: Africa Day

The first official day and the second day of the World Youth Summit proved to be another day riddled with bad weather, ill communication, transport, and food and accommodation woes; as it would be in any festival or congress of this magnitude. There is no doubt that the preparatory committees in charge of bringing this festival to the world could have done better to avoid some of the unnecessary hiccups that met the visitors, local and otherwise, but these in discrepancies would only cease to stall the inevitable: a congress where youth would discuss global issues and share unrivalled experiences.

Issues of land distribution and free education where the highlighted issues of the day. Though the full programme of the first day was not laid out due to delays and inefficient preparations the conferences and seminars that did take place were an outstanding success. It was beautiful to see how the delegate’s spirits where raised with the clearing weather and by the end of the day the belief that the issues being stressed at this festival were far more important than some minor disagreements. What was unfortunate to witness was the disgraceful behaviour of some of the Moroccan who antagonized a heated Western Sahara mob by tearing up their flag and spitting on it. This action and behaviour by the Moroccan delegates is something the festival condemns and has asked the all delegates to refrain from as it does not fit into the plight for peace and solidarity that this festival is about.

Thought things may have gotten out of hand and emotions reached levels they shouldn't, the day was concluded with an entertaining  set by local DJ's Syi of Mamelodi who stung the multi-cultural audience with a set that lit the masses up like roman candles.

THE OPENING

The Opening Ceremony




With all the negativity about the World Youth & Student Summit, one would think that the 20 000 people strong youth that gathered at the Lucas “Masterpieces” Morepe Super Stadium in Attridgeville, Pretoria where assembled to plan the world’s biggest multi-cultural youth jol; at least that is what popular South African media has been telling anyone with a chip on the shoulder that is willing to listen. The question that begs an answer is as to whether the aide that South Africa is giving to countries that once supported us in our apartheid struggle is worth the penny that is being forked out for this festival. The truth is no amount of money in the world is enough to heal the sadness and disparity that we encounter on a daily bases.
The opening Ceremony of the WYFS (World Festival of Youth and Students) was nothing short of a global intervention to tell the world that the humble people of the world will not be silenced, oppressed and made fools of any longer. More than 150 countries came to congress in the pouring rain eager to address the injustices and crimes that each one of the youth and their countries are subjected to everyday.

The way the rain came down on the morning of the 13th would have made any non-believer think that the gods were mad at the youth for their avid defiance, but as you may or may not know, in African culture rain is regarded a blessing from the ancestors. And so it was proved rightfully so when the skies opened their arms and the beautiful Pretoria sun embraced event as the program was due to begin.

The ceremony was opened in true South African style by the cast of Umoja serenading the visitors with an awe-inspiring performance. Not since the World Cup Opening Ceremony had so many faces come to life in such unity and excitement. Gripping performances by Winnie Khumalo, Spokazi and the South African Military band raised the bar to heights incomparable to any marking the first day of the World Youth Spectacular.

The speakers for the evening where Andile Lungisa of the NYDA, The Secretary General of WFDY, Jesus Mora, the President of the IOC Tiago Vieira, The President of the ANCYL, Julius Malema and President Jacob Zuma. Inspiring worlds of leadership, tenacity and unity were shared by the hefty leaders who described the crimes experienced by the youths of countries like Burma, Sudan, Western Sahara, Cyprus, New Zealand and many others as nothing short of an abomination. Genocide, Inequality, Rape, Sodomy Lack of education and Exploitation of resources by international powerhouses, like the USA are some of the topics that the speakers felt that this festival would serve to address.

FESTIVAL MOMENTS