Freedom is the
Most Cherished
Possession of a
South African Unfortunately, for most of us its value is lost. Few are able to describe it and explain its significance.
By Andrew Howarth It is only those who have lived without freedom who know what it is. I do not. I always have been free. Our nation was reinvented, and we became a citizenry scarred by years of separation, timidly looking each other in the eye. For the first time, equal. I will never understand all the dimensions of the era my parents experienced. For this reason, most foreigners and post-1990 South Africans cannot understand the value of freedom in this nation. Things have changed. I was born in a hospital where people of different colours were born and died in the same rooms. I live in a time when people who varied in pigment could
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Reflections on Freedom 2013
marry one another, live next to each other, use the same bathroom, be buried in the same cemetery, sun tan on the same beaches, shop in the same stores, learn the same subjects, study the same degrees and travel in the same transport. Freedom is something always assured to me. I grew up next to other races, my colour sometimes bearing the grunt of protest or disdain by older people — ones with dead eyes who did not see me but merely classed me as “one of them” or better put, “not one of us.” For some, the past is not easily forgotten and the present is not easily accepted. I went to school in 1996 — a mixed race school. It did not seem like a big deal at the time. Education for me was a right. I grew up and went to school with other races and was taught in my home language — all along taking this for granted. I just expected it, never thinking about what had been lost so that I could draw doodles in my exercise book. On June 16, 1976, Mbuyisa Makhubo carried a small boy after he had been shot by police. This was Hector Pieterson. He wanted to be taught in his own language. He died in protest against a government that was against him. It was too late for me to join the struggle, too late to endure the bitter grip of Brink’s dry white season, too late to be exiled for a free voice or imprisoned for one that was not tolerated. I did not witness the terrors of the burning rats dug into the enemies of the people, or endure the rubber pellets or batons of the police. I was not alive when Hector Pieterson and 4,000 others took to the streets. I was not there when Biko and the others were sentenced to that island, nor did I grow up in a nation shunned by the world. I was too young to walk tall like Madiba. It was too late for me to throw rocks at police cars in protest of an unethical government, or serve a sentence on that island. I never experienced the exclusiveness of hospitals, schools, beaches or bathrooms. My homeland is in dire need of good people, people who not only understand the right to freedom but also the value of it. No longer are we shackled by apartheid. Freedom is more than just a word used by fat politicians in speeches. Freedom is the most cherished commodity a South African can possess, even if sometimes it is vastly under appreciated. Freedom for South Africans was provided by courageous and bold leaders. After years of fighting for what is just, they asked us carry to carry the torch of freedom with pride and dignity. They believed in a South Africa that went beyond racial abhorrence, beyond discrimination of any form, beyond hatred. They believed in a free South Africa, and 49 million of us enjoy the result of their successful struggle. For me, freedom is something I already have received. Its value is lost to me. Indeed, its value is lost to most of us. True, we sing its praises, but if asked what it means, few are able to describe it and explain its significance. For me, freedom is something I have been provided. Similarly, I have a computer. I eat snacks while I use it, and I have electric lights and running water. I am not an exception. Most South Africans have these privileges. However, we take them for granted, just like we take freedom for granted. So let’s apply Ubuntu to freedom. I am free because we are free.
