16 JUNE; IT’S ABOUT THE AFRICAN CHILD, IT’S ABOUT THE STUDENT & IT’S ABOUT US

By Brighton Taruberekera

If black lives really matter, then 16 June should mean a lot for us as Africans. It is a day to commemorate and reminiscent the sad memories of June 16, 1976 whilst at the same time focusing on making the future brighter and better for all Africans especially its tender ones. 

Today is 16 June. Some forty years ago in the township of Soweto in South Africa, nearly ten thousand black students marched in the streets to protest over the poor quality of their education. They marched as a way to demonstrate their disapproval of the Black Education Act which segregated students based on their race.

The Soweto protest has come and gone but we have a couple of lessons to learn from that incident. Firstly, that black lives matter and that education should be accessible to all.

The Day of the African Child is an opportunity to raise awareness for the ongoing need to improve the education of children living across Africa. It’s a need that still very much exists today.  As I write this, thousands of African children are being denied the right to education. Across the continent, the Covid-19 induced lockdown measures have seen countries adopting e-learning as an alternative to conventional teaching methods. Education, once again has become a monopoly of the privileged few. It is no longer about burning candles and putting ink on paper. It is now about paperless browsing, streaming, downloading and uploading. The world is going paperless and who cares about those that still cannot afford even the paper itself?

Surely something need to be done to ensure that education is accessible to all. The future of Africa depends on its young ones. As we commemorate the Day of the African Child, let’s remember to make education accessible and affordable to all, especially to the African Child.



Brighton Taruberekera is a Zimbabwean citizen, politically active and socially interactive.

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