Education and oppression : addressing the freedom of 'Born Free' in South Africa

Abstract

‘Born free’, is a label given to the generation born in South Africa during and after 1994. This label, carries an explicit assertion that all those born after 1994 are essentially free. They are free from apartheid, oppression and essentially free to live and do, within a new democratic South Africa. However, this stands in direct opposition to the grassroot experiences of many South African ‘born frees’. Looking at the protests of the ‘born frees’, the #FeesMustFall movement and the socioeconomic and political landscape of South Africa, one wonders the extent to which the ‘born frees’ are free. Thus, this project aims to interrogate the freedom of the ‘born frees’ within post-apartheid South Africa. I do so by analysing the degree to which apartheid survived. If apartheid managed to crossover into the new dispensation of freedom, then this freedom is merely an illusion. Apartheid has evolved into free market policies which place a price tag on all aspects of life, implicitly driving out those without economic power from participating in society’s systems and institutions. A guaranteed exclusion around racial lines as well, since wealth, power and economic privilege continue to pool in the hands of a white body. Regardless of these systems, educated citizens who have the ability to critically reflect on these oppressive systems, and their abilities to reshape the systems that shape their lives, are able to take up transformational agency to bring about societal change. Thus, I prescribe an education for freedom.