The Millennial generation has been my research topic since my debate in Amsterdam in 2009. Two American sociologists, Neil Howe and William Strauss, gave this global generation its name. They were born in the eighties with a different approach and a different perception of themselves and the world. I have been following the African Millennials closely and that resulted in different stories....
Africa In Progress - Spoken Word, Performing art and life skills
Spoken word is becoming hot among young Africans. Our guest in this edition, Blaq Pearl, is an upcoming artist from the townships around Capetown in South Africa. She explains what Spoken Word is, and how it’s emerging as a life skill for urban youths on the continent and elsewhere.
ZAM - Road Without Directions
A storyteller from Chad once said that at first a human being needs
thirty years to become an adult. After that he will carry for fifteen years
major responsibilities, that are followed by a decade of looking after his
family. Then, during his last years he can sit back and make funny jokes with
his grandchildren.
Life follows a certain pattern, so says the storyteller. Unfortunately,
he neglects to mention that the road is without direction. I know that by now.
I grew up as a black girl in a white society and the most important questions
that needed to be answered by myself were: who am I and where is my home?
People have given me a strange look when I talk about my African identity. They
don't understand because my parents come from Surinam. But also from the
Surinamese I have gotten some displeased looks. Hardship, hunger and violence
are the only notions about the ‘black continent’. Nobody wants to belong to
such a place.
I experience Africa quite the opposite. It is my cradle. It has
everything to do with my identity because of our family history, the
experiences of my parents and ancestors. That is how I see things different than
my mother and father. They consider their identity as what is said in their
passport.
This observation became my moment of maturing. These last years I have
become friends with young Africans who also formed a different perspective on
life than their care takers. They have another approach on various subjects
like what is my identity, where do I raise my family and how will I earn my
money? Their ideas about these things were not really linked with their African
context in which they grew up. It also had not much to do with the European
society where they landed.
Just like me, they had followed their own path and
chased their own dreams. Furthermore, they weren't just 'westernized' as some
might say. They were buildings their lives without 'falling between two
cultures', as others might put it. When I look at them, I see something entirely different. I see a
mentality that goes beyond these borders. (...)
(article in ZAM Africa magazine, winter 2011)
ZAM, Lloyd Hotel & Cultural Embassy - African Millennials
Meet the new, upcoming generations of Africans searching for answers to the worldwide crisis and the many problems countries on the continent are confronted with. American Millennials already raised their voices and helped Barack Obama win the elections. What are their contemporaries on the African continent occupied with? For them the challenge seems even bigger. How can they stem the tide? Who are they and what do they have to say? They come from all corners of the African continent to study, work and live in Europe.
Debate, June 2009 in Amsterdam
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