The community centre debate in Soweto

Again I’m in Soweto for a debate between several kids from a community centre. This place is full of creative activities like theatre, dancing, music and writing. It supposed to be a save place where young people get inspired and motivated to do and to make something beautiful of their lives. Before we started with our debate I had a conversation with one of the organisers of this community centre, Sizwe. He grew up in the middle of crime and as a teenager, stealing and other activities became part of his daily routine. The turning point in his life was the dead of his best friend who got killed after stealing some money of a taxi driver. Siswe saw his friend murdered on the street and realised that he should change his way of life fundamentally. From that moment he decided to help other young people in the townships through facilitating creative activities, like here at the community centre. I couldn’t imagine that this very kind, intelligent and friendly man once, an aggressive criminal was. Apparently, an environment full of criminality and poverty could change the kindest person on earth into a beast. It’s very admirable the way that Sizwe transformed his life in a positive way.
After this interesting conversation, we started our debate about sex and relationships. Before I went to Johannesburg I had this idea of a society where Apartheid still in a way exist, a country where black and white people do not like each other. But what I noticed today (and yesterday) is that the young people nowadays, this new generation, do not think that way. They ‘re curious and interested in the other. The motion “I would never date a white boy or girl” surprisingly wasn’t answered with ‘yes’. Instead of that, they think it should be normal because Johannesburg is a city full of different cultural identities. But, even that the black people since 1994 have more rights and opportunities, you still see that black people are living with black people and white people with white people. I think that curiosity of the youth and the fact that Johannesburg is indeed a city of different cultural identities is not enough to solve this kind of distance between blacks and whites. The huge poverty and crime in Johannesburg is in my opinion the main reason why there is still a gab between blacks and whites. But people like Sizwe prove that it is possible to escape from this environment through individual motivation, power and guts.