This special day commemorates the 1976 Soweto Uprising, where thousands of students were ambushed by the apartheid regime. This is a day that people in Africa pay tribute to the lives of students and the role of the youth in the liberation struggle of South Africa from the apartheid regime. The commemorations across the whole continent is a symbolic gesture of resistance against all forms of injustices by the youth of Africa.
This year’s theme was ‘Promoting Sustainable Livelihoods and Resilience of Young People for a Better Tomorrow’. It is thus important to reflect on some of the challenges that are faced by millions of youths in a continent, which faces a complex web of socio-economic and political challenges. It is important to note that from 1950 to present, Africa’s population has grown steadily to 1.3 billion, which makes it the second largest population after Asia. Africa has the youngest population with a median age of 20. In addition, 60% of the population in the continent is under the age of 25 and the number of those under the age of 35 is almost a billion amounting to 22% of the world’s total youth population. Despite the dominant population of youth in Africa, the socio-economic and political opportunities that are available to them pales into insignificance when juxtaposed with the many socio- economic and security challenges that they face in their daily lives.
