Matthew Field is a
Grade 12 pupil from St Alban’s College in Pretoria. He represented South Africa
at the World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championships, where he
placed in the top 12 in the world for persuasive speech. His opinions are
expressed in his own capacity.
Across the Earth, nations watch us with bated breath. For
whilst we are mighty, we sleep. They pray we shall never wake! For all of the
pomp and pleasantries they greet us with, they have never shown us what their
true feeling is: fear.
They fear this giant that sleeps. They fear the day the
Azanian machine awakes from her slumber. Her slumber of despair. Her slumber of
hopelessness.
I tell you, this land is richer than all others. Her soil carries
the fertility of Eden. Her gold runs into the very mantle of this planet. Her seas crash against a continent filled
with the greatest resource of all: the South African people. Never before in
human history has such a pantheon of humanity been assembled.
I do not say this lightly. Since human feet first made their
mark on our soil, we have done the impossible. The first South Africans tamed a
land where the mountains scraped the sky, and the deserts crossed an endless
plane. They fought for a place amongst the beasts, and built for themselves a
home amongst the savage wilderness. The people of this land fought back Western
invaders without end. South Africans do not surrender. When their land was
stolen, they did not bite their tongues. South Africans do not surrender. They
were forced down into the earth to dig out its riches as little more than
slaves, but they refused to let the dream of freedom die. South Africans do not
surrender. They fought other men’s’ in wars on continents over the seas, while
their own people suffered. South Africans do not surrender. Our people suffered
murder, humiliation, segregation, torture and tyranny. South Africans do not
surrender.
We invent, we create and we change the world.
I dare say that we live in the greatest nation on Earth. I
say this, because we have overcome the impossible.
Every generation has it’s own great struggle. Every
generation of this land has added chapters to the master work that is South
Africa – the masterwork that is the universal quest for freedom.
Sadly, we as collective authors of our destiny are suffering
from writer’s block. Yes, we have many chapters in need of closing (income
inequality, climate change, violence against women, crime, racism, etc.), but
we are thus far unable to pick up the pen.
For reasons that presently escape me, we Born Frees are
unable to pick up the pen, and continue the next chapter in the book of
freedom. Yes, we have some daring authors finishing some pages, and
#FeesMustFall is certainly a chapter in its own right. However, they are
outnumbered by an alarming group seeking not to write new pages, but rather to
tear them out.
We Born Frees are poisoned by politics. Be it along race,
gender or whatever other divisionary line, we tear our nation apart. Line by
line. Page by page.
A white child will refuse to see the lingering legacy of
apartheid, and their inherent privilege. Instead, they cry reverse racism. A
young man will refuse to see how the women of our country suffer. Instead, they
long for the old world - the man’s world. The children of oppressors refuse to
admit guilt. The children of the oppressed refuse to engage with the few that
do. What is the result?
We are left with a book unfinished. We are left standing as
that generation who took the torch, dropped it, and carried on.
Instead of young South Africans wanting to make their
country into the great power it deserves to be, they take their skills and give
them freely to those foreign lands that gave them nothing. Why should you want
to serve any other country, when you could be a part of the greatest story of
innovation, liberation and freedom that the world has ever seen?
I implore you, young South Africans, have faith in your
country. Have faith in your countrymen. Forget the politics. Remember instead,
the great journey that we all share. No other nation is abounding with such
opportunity as ours.
South Africa is destined to be more than that country who
became democratic in 1994. That was a great achievement, but it was not ours.
We cannot take credit for our parents’ work. We cannot sit by and reap from
what we have not sown.
South Africa is destined to be more. We are destined to be a
great power amongst the cast of nations. We are meant to move out of the wings
and into the spotlight. We destined to be a beacon for all humanity to gaze
upon and say: that nation is great.
This can happen. This will happen. That is our story to
write.
All we have to do is come together, and realize that you do
not save a sinking ship by ignoring each other or jumping overboard.
Dear Born Frees:
Please, just pick up the pen!
