Current movements happening in Africa like #EndSARS in Nigeria and the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon, have - like the Black Lives Matter Protests in the U.S. - resonated across geographical boundaries and charged more Black people across the diaspora to build transnational solidarity.
In the next installment of our In Conversation interview with the contributing writers of Your Silence Will Not Protect You is Fiske Nyirongo (pronounced ‘fisk-yeh’), a Zambian writer whose piece “Zambian Youth Have Protested” discusses the history and current impact of Zambian youth in political movements.
How did you approach writing your piece about Zambian youth activism?
I was trying to write a piece that’s in response to Zambia politicians who insinuated that Zambian youth are cowards. So it’s in response to that and I wanted to mark the ways that Zambian youth have protested in the past and in the present.
Even though it’s come out of very unfortunate situations, I think that the #EndSARS movement in Nigeria and learning about Zambian movements against government corruption through your piece have solidified for me that African youth are really out there leading protests and activism. I’m not entirely familiar with the whole history, but would you say that’s a newer phenomenon or a part of a larger legacy of youth activism?
Coming from pre-independence for most African countries, most of the time it’s youths who started the protests. It is from the past and it is also in the present.
You also wrote that “ The Zambian youth of the 1950s fought a different adversary, the current youth are fighting the Zambian youth and children of the 1950s.” What is it like to navigate that generational divide in terms of actually getting things done and achieving progress?
It is very hard to fight people who look like you. You protest against your parents, your grandparents, so I think it’s a much more challenging protest.
I think in the US there’s this conversation that celebrities here are involved in politics in a way that is largely unproductive - but in your essay, you talk about how musicians were instrumental in raising awareness and mobilizing people - can you talk about that a little more, who’s looked to as a leader in Zambian political movements?
For celebrities to be the first ones talking about the issues - I think it helps the protest. the consequences are not that bad for them because they are forming a line in front of the less-famous people.
Anything else you want to add?
I think politicians should be careful what they say about the youth. Because you want to get votes from us, but the things you say about us - we’re lazy, we’re “keyboard warriors”…we won’t vote for you. We won’t vote for you. So politicians should be careful what they say about the youth. ‘Cause you’ve got much more tools to use - the internet. We can organize, and you should be careful.
