Africa Is a Country

Freedom, youth and remembrance

Freedom, youth and remembrance

By
Sean Jacobs

In the documentary "Remembered Futures" the filmmakers interrogate the ways South Africans understand their own history and how this affects their futures.

This image which appears in the film is by Sibu Mpanza.

Yesterday, June 16th, South Africa celebrated Youth Day in commemoration of the 1976 Soweto Uprising, a massive student protest against the apartheid government which ended in the killing of hundreds and after the Sharpeville massacre, globally cemented apartheid South Africa as a morally indefensible pariah state.

In the spirit of youth and resistance, writers Tseliso Monaheng, Andrew Miller and Kagiso Mnisi (Monaheng is also a filmmaker and photographer) have put together a documentary project called “Remembered Futures,” which explores ideas around freedom, youth and remembrance in contemporary South Africa. It uses Freedom Day, the commemoration of South Africa’s first democratic elections, as a starting reference.

The film kicks off with the story of the defiant Chief Langalibalele of the amaHlubi. Via the country’s premier hip hop gathering, Back To The City Festival, the film looks at what freedom means to South African youth today. It ends off by exploring the current socio-political climate, using the recent xenophobic attacks and the student-led Rhodes Must Fall movement at the University of Cape Town as vantage points.

Featured are the historians Prof. Jon Wright and Dr. Nomalanga Mkhize along with Back To The City festival’s co-founder Osmic Menoe and artist Quaz Roodt. The documentary first aired on Soweto TV on 27th April this year. That date is called Freedom Day in South Africa to commemorate its first democratic elections in 1994. Here is the full film.

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