The democratic South Africa has seen a lot of shift in cultural paridgms. One of the things we have come to accept is the idea of youth in leadership positions. Introduced to the politics of the country by those who used his family home as a hide out from the apartheid government and police Linda … Kwa Mashu Voices: Youth in Politics
In a province seen as conservative, the youth has taken control of their destiny. The freedom to chose comes from a negative position of parents who can’t educate their children thus cannot dictate their career choices. In this breakaway young people have taken on careers previously seen as less important and often labelled useless. Mondli … Kwa Mashu Voices: The Comedian
South Africa’s apartheid violence in the 80’ forced young men and women to sacrifice their youth to join military training in exile. Organisations like African National Congress and Pan Africanist Congress had set-up military bases in countries like Zambia, Angola, Tanzania etc. This was to prepare for the armed struggle for the liberation of their … Kwa Mashu Voices: The Forgotten Guerilla
Sithembile Dludla is a 9 years old girl with a gift of memory. She has done more public speaking than most adults. A devout Christian, who doesn’t watch TV, believes in prayer and has limits to most things young people do. Sthembile hosts a radio show on Vibe FM about Christianity and is known to … Kwa Mashu Voices: The Gift of Memory
Lucky Simayile grew up during the time of rampant crime in his township. When his father was killed during the political violence, Lucky drifted into crime. He joined a group of criminals at a young age and was arrested at 17 and got sentenced to 8 years in prison. When he came out he had … Kwa Mashu Voices: Awards for Crime
As part of a comprehensive audio series for the Masculinity Project the students and journalism faculty at Hampton University put together a brief expositional narrative here on the state of the American education system and its intersection with race and class. What is the fourth grade failure syndrome? Who does it affect? And what can … Education
Here the students and journalism faculty at Hampton University explore the prison system and its ties to race and class in America; the end result of an unbalanced system which disproportionately influences the lives of young black men in America. Is the road to prison more often treaded by black male soles? And what role … Prison
According to a 2006 report by the US Census Bureau there are 2.5 million single fathers in America, in 1970 there were 400, 000. This short audio piece from Hampton University follows the life of a black male student juggling the books and a young son. What myths can Terrence’s story dispel about traditional black … Single Father
This is a one-hour audio feature produced as a youth project with the Public Radio Exchange and Chicago’s WBEZ. It creatively explores, through spoken word and a variety of edited story segments, the questions surrounding being black and male in America today through an array of youth characters using casual, conversational storytelling.