So much is being said about young people in our country that the song is now starting to stir in the ears of some of us. Tanzanian youth are given all kinds of bad qualities: lazy, drunk, sloppy, immoral, unimaginative of the future, and so on.
But if we take a moment and reflect, even just a little, we will discover that young people are responsible to a very small extent on the factors that affect the well-being and direction of this country, which, in my assessment, are largely contributed by our elders.
Let’s try to ask ourselves these questions: Who are the big money thieves in our country, who are the biggest embezzlers? Who are the great hypocrites? Who are the big ones?
Who leads the seduction of young girls and leaves them pregnant? Are they demanding bribes for a young man to get a job when he has nothing more than his education? Do you sing songs of complete hypocrisy, and reveal the insanity that you have squandered?
Who are the people who are preventing young people from speaking at local and village meetings? Prefer their unqualified relatives and leave the young ones to falter? Who are the ones who come home drunk and start scrolling through the literature for their partners?
I’m not saying young people are saints while old people are the devil, no! My point here is that if the elders want to use the examples of lazy young people to say all the young people, then the younger ones will respond to the plague. Today’s young people are the product of the old people!
Generational contradictions
However, this is not surprising at all because it is common for previous generations to blame the next generations.
Today’s elders who blame the clothing of the youth of today are the ones who wear slacks, slacks, short skirts, and so on as young to old people of that era began the operation of encouraging decent clothing.
I personally know some of the older people I taught as teenagers. I know who escaped school and went drunk until one of the lads was hidden behind the classroom as he couldn’t even walk!
They had to drive their colleagues out of the basement to sleep so they could carry their partner to the dormitory and to be sedated. I know people who have gone to listen to Jazz at night.
I know who kept the wild before the debate so they could remove the shame in front of their sisters and potential lovers. I know people who were in school.
All of these came to be professors, distinguished teachers, excellent staff and even ‘honourables.’
I don’t know why if someone crosses adolescence into knowledge, or old age, he suffers from a disease of forgetting where he came from, for in blaming young people they blame themselves!
Yes, and those who cursed them were also cursed by their parents for abandoning their traditions and wearing suits and tie.
It was they who betrayed their culture, not only of dress but also of disrespect when they returned home, stalking in front of the elders and blaming them for being outdated. This clash of generations is permanent!
Colonial remnants
But it’s an insidious and oppressive contradiction too which, in part, may also be a remnant of colonialism.
From studying, as well as speaking to the very elderly in different parts of the country, I have discovered that before the colonists came up with their patriarchy, African boys and girls had a major role in determining the fate of their respective communities.
Colonials were the ones who separated young people, especially those who went to school, and their communities, and filled with different ideologies, religions, attitudes, and behaviors to serve the colonial state. And in that way they created more animosity between the old and the young.
But the youth of that era were able to turn the colonialists on the tablet, leading the struggle for independence, and they inherited the colonial positions and other positions that resulted from the expansion of the state and its instruments as young people.
And they have been with them all the years. How can they blame young people who want to have the opportunity to show their abilities and theirs?
In fact, I believe that the elders have been clever. They know that young people outperform them in school education, in knowing many things, in the use of technology, and so on.
What are they doing to keep their positions alive? Only age, and for older men, be rude, then!
That’s why you hear elders insist, “Oh, young people have no respect. We have to respect them. Trees and tricks. Let’s continue with the slave prayers!”
Well. Respect them even if they don’t have any respect. I like to respect someone who is self-respecting.
There is no advocate
And who are the youth advocates in particular, the Youth Department? I believe they are struggling but it is a single department within a ministry with a name reeeeeeeefu and a short budget. Or is it the ruling party’s youth union, the Revolutionary Party (UVCCM)?
Can you tell me when they have stood up to defend the rights of their fellow young people? Did they protect them? Working girls? Bodabodas? Those who are condemned to go to cutting-edge schools –buildings without education–, exploited even if they get a job under the guise of “volunteering?”
This unity of youth is not for the sake of their fellow youths, but to protect their elders, so that they may have a chance to be protected in the future. That’s why people complain that young people are not fit for leadership.
Young people are not of the same type and these are just some kind of youth, perhaps we should call them jachawa. All young people should not be judged for the declarations and actions of this small group.
What about the youth coalition of other parties how much have their youth stood up to advocate for the youth who have no access to society?
Let’s take chances of regular youth participation, for example, on the streets and in rural areas. We did a survey about ten years ago on the role of youth in society, focusing on four villages in eight districts, 32 villages in total.
In 31 villages, youth said they are not given opportunities to speak at meetings, they are despised and bullied when they try to speak, their priorities are not given a chance, youth opportunities are given to the children of leaders, and so on.
In one village they were even flogging trying to get their idea out. Too much are counted as free-lance labour in village projects. It’s not that they don’t want to participate in these projects but they’re always not asked, they’re just decided.
For example, it is decided to come on a Saturday at a certain hour, or else they will be fined. But Saturday is their special day of their business, so it’s a big loss for them but they have to accept it or fine and be fined.
Since they are the village labour force, why should they not be asked and when is it best for them to do the work? What do we have to wonder if young people don’t want to be involved? A lot of people have been discouraged!
Young people are being recognized
And the most desperate are the ones who get into a variety of addictions. But they would have been given a little training and a chance they would have done some really great things.
Young people are educators, they are educators, they are researchers, they can help enroll children and do a lot of community work as long as they are recognized and given the ability to provide for themselves.
I don’t even want to go to school. The slur has taken root until the walls of education have collapsed and we wonder why young people don’t see the need to go to school to be stamped ‘KAFELI.’
These young people, between the ages of 15 and 35, make up 37% of the population in Tanzania; It is the work force of the nation, and the intellectual work, and the creative work, and the active efforts of the nation.
My experience after working with young people in many parts of this country is that when young people are given the opportunity many are catching it with both hands and feet until the last wail.
The secret of our country’s development lies in the youth, but when will they be given priorities, when will they be given the opportunity to showcase their talents?
If you look at other countries, things like development, creativity, and innovation are brought about by young people, but here for us young people coming up with a new idea they are told they have no respect, listen to the elderly, and those innovations automatically disappear.
We do not develop as a nation because we do not allow young people to make progress. If you don’t believe in me, give them a chance to see miracles!
Source: The Chanzo