In 2016, a protest led by young Black students at Pretoria Girls High in South Africa garnered worldwide attention. The students were protesting against the discriminatory policies and institutionalized racism at their school, unearthing, yet again, the failed reconciliation between South Africa and its colonial past. At the forefront of the movement was 13-year old Zulaikha Patel, whose image ricocheted across numerous media outlets around the world. Donning her school uniform, afro, and in one picture a raised fist, Patel posits a striking image with other young students like herself. She was fed up.
South Africa’s educational system has a long history of racism. Almost 22 years after the historic 1994 elections which brought an end to the apartheid regime, its schooling system still remains a cultural artefact that upholds White minorities. So much so, that schools in 2016 were still subjugating their students to racial policies, reprimanding them for wearing their natural Black hair and prohibiting them from speaking their ethnic languages at school. According to Al Jeezera the #StopRacismAtPretoriaGirlsHigh began when a 13-year old Black girl was told by a teacher that her hair was “unruly” and was also disciplined for an essay she wrote about the consequences of White oppression and privilege on Black womxn.
Nearly four years later, not much has changed, with some South African schools facing fresh allegations of discrimination over the summer. I spoke with the effervescent Zulaikha Patel who played a key role in the #StopRacismAtPretoriaGirlsHigh movement about activism, racial injustice and why young people need to play a bigger part in policy change.
4 years ago, you were part of the historic #StopRacismAtPretoriaGirlsHigh movement, which also sparked similar protests in other high schools. How do you feel in 2020?
I feel like the fire in me is burning more than it was then because I’ve been exposed to corruption. I’ve seen it take place right in front of me and it’s made that burning desire for decolonization burn even more. We aren’t truly liberated as South Africans, and as a continent at large, if we aren’t mentally emancipated. Black South Africans are still being subjected to a privatised version of apartheid, which can be seen in our economy and in our educational institutions. I’m able to be consistent and remain the same activist the world was introduced to in 2016 because I have an even deeper desire to see true liberation for my country and the continent. Having said that, I’m not satisfied.
Zulaikha Patel at the 2016 #StopRacismAtPretoriaGirlsHigh movement Source: https://www.thedailyvox.co.za/zulaikha-patel-wish-we-were-you/
There’s still a lot more to be done.
Exactly! As a young Black womxn in South Africa, I am directly affected by these issues that plague our country. I was left dissatisfied with how our protest back in 2016 was narrated by Western media outlets. Which is why you’d always find me championing young African writers because I feel like our stories should be told by us. The protests were hijacked by the media from those who led the movement. The way it was reported was diluted to make it more appealing to its audience and it was watered down to just being about “hair”. When you think about hair, it doesn’t spark the kind of raw emotion that it should spark.
Yes, I remember a lot of the headlines at the time were always about “schoolgirls protesting racist hair policies”. Even though that was part of what you were protesting, it wasn’t that in its entirety. It was so much more than that. Can you tell us a little more about it?
Our movement was on the basis of decolonizing education. If the most fundamental part of society remains heavily colonial then we’re not going to usher in a newly decolonized generation. It wasn’t just about “the hair”. Hair was a singular symptom of the entire diagnosis, and the entire diagnosis was about the legacy of colonisation in education and racism that is still heavily prevalent in South Africa. You don’t have to search very far for evidence. All the schools that thrive and remain heavily resourced are formerly white-only schools, while the average Black person from a working-class background is subjected to a much more inferior education. Even when you’re placed in these formerly white-only school, you’re still placed in a position of inferiority. That is why we were protesting.
Pretoria Girls High School pupils during protest against alleged racism and intimidation at the school on August 29, 2016 in Pretoria, South Africa. There has been a huge social media outcry after pupils of the school reported that they were told their afro hair makes uniform look untidy and were barred from doing hairstyles that were inherently African. (Photo by Gallo Images / Sowetan / Alon Skuy)
The legacy of apartheid still affects educational institutions and this isn’t the first protest about racism in schools that South Africa has seen.
Definitely not. The other revolution that was happening at the time was the #FeesMustFall movement among university students in 2015, which was demanding free, quality decolonized education for all. What we were doing was showing that these inequalities don’t start in universities, they start right here at the foundation. We were expected to leave our African identities at the gates before we came into school and we were told we couldn’t speak African languages on the property. That for me was wild because where on earth do you expect African people to be African, if not in Africa?
Why do you think this movement sparked so much attention?
What took place between the 26th of August to the 31st was basically an uprising of high school students in South Africa where we re-awakened the spirit of the 1976 Soweto uprising. We were asking through our movement, “how far have we gotten South African in terms of decolonization at its most fundamental sector?”. It also reaffirmed what I already knew: womxn have always been at the forefront of revolutions advocating against discrimination on the continent. In 2016, there was a pattern. Once we protested, which was a female-led protest, by the way, all the other protests across the country started propping up and they all took place in girls schools. From Lawson Brown High School to St Michael’s School for Girls, young girls like myself were protesting racism at their respective schools. It was a pattern.
SOWETO – SOUTH AFRICA, JUNE 16: On 16 June 1976 high-school students in Soweto, South Africa, protested for better education. Police fired teargas and live bullets into the marching crowd killing innocent people and ignited what is known as “The Soweto Uprising”, the bloodiest episode of riots between police and protesters since the 1960’s. (Photo by Bongani Mnguni/City Press/Gallo Images/Getty Images)
In Mona Eltahawy’s The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls, she writes about the different binds of oppression that intersect for Black womxn. As a young Black womxn, how do you feel like your activism is received?
I always feel like it’s received differently by different people. With young people, it’s received positively. However, by the government, it’s received as an act of terrorism. I’ve had several incidents where I’ve been called a “terrorist” by the school institutions and people in power.
The intersection between being young, Black and a womxn, is that we’re unfortunately heavily underrepresented in decision making positions. They only time they listen to young people is through “youth-friendly corners” and I’m not a fan.
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Why not?
Because these corners are only ever a positive thing is to conscientize and organize young people! Why should people who make up a larger part of the demographic speak through a designated corner? Why can’t we speak through the mainstream structure?
And that’s just how I feel being young and I’m sure other young people can relate. But as a black womxn, I’m always going to come across as “too loud” because the world was constructed to silence me. I’m one for gender equity instead of gender equality because I feel like womxn have been disadvantaged for centuries. We aren’t just going to come into a position of equality overnight. It needs to be equity. We need to make up for all these centuries that womxn have been disadvantaged and create structures within the economy for womxn to access capital.
There’s this thing in South Africa called Black Economic Empowerment (B.E.E) which was developed to bring Black people into the economy. Even though it’s infiltrated with corruption, its main aim was to bring Black people into the economy because the economy was ruled by the White majority. I feel like it’s super critical to have something like that for womxn across the African continent. African womxn still don’t have easy access or access at all to capital.
That for me was wild because where on earth do you expect African people to be African, if not in Africa?
-Zulaikha Patel
In your opinion, what more needs to be done?
Progressive change and tangible policies are only going to happen when young people come into power. All the solutions for change that are brought forward are done by young people.
There are so many young people who sit unemployed, they sit with their degrees, and you have a generation that’s meant to have retired a long time ago still sitting in the same jobs they’ve had for decades. It’s a very awkward and weird dynamic.
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In previous interviews, you’ve mentioned how your dad played a key role in South Africa’s liberation movement and was involved in politics, which influenced you. How can we get more young people involved in politics?
I think that the only thing we can do is restructure the education system because people are products of the education they receive and the way they’re socialized. Education is a form of socialisation, it teaches you to think, act and respond in a certain way. The information that we’re soaking up needs to be progressive. And if that information is not opening up new channels of thinking, then we’re not doing anything. We’re not pushing the youth forward, we’re setting them back. Education should not be colonial incarceration. Educational should be empowering and liberating.
