-
Youth Day Graphic
As the country commemorates Youth Day on June 16, South Africans remember the brave young people who took to the streets of Soweto in 1976, demanding justice and refusing to be oppressed by the apartheid regime. Their defiance marked a pivotal moment in the country’s struggle for freedom.
This year, the global creative collective, Homies, has launched a campaign centred on Youth Day, using music and storytelling to highlight the ongoing power and cultural legacy of South African youth.
Homies Founder and Executive Creative Director Jena Dominique says there’s something special happening in the global music industry right now and that’s largely because of the contributions South African youth have made.
“It’s important for them to feel like we’re not another global brand coming in to take or extract their culture, rather to support, uplift, and amplify,” says Dominique.
The Homies campaign recognises DJs and artists as custodians of culture and community builders who continue to define what freedom means for a new generation.
“Over the last 18 to 24 months, we’ve seen the influence of South African music, culture and talent rise in global dance music,” Dominique adds.
Similarly, the campaign’s Director of Creative Strategy, Charlie Britz, emphasises the personal significance of Youth Day.
“This campaign is about giving space to those voices and celebrating their stories.”
PODCAST | Homies honours Youth Day through music:
Britz alludes that Youth Day has always held weight for him.
“I remember how in school our history lessons would shift around this time of year… it was the names, the stories, and always just that one image of Hector Peterson being carried through the streets. That was really my first encounter with what it meant to be young and brave in South Africa,” says Britz.
Britz says Homies is part of a lineage of telling stories, “It’s a continuation of the stories we’re still writing through music, through movement, and through each other, and that’s why this campaign had to be anchoring you today.”
Moreover, Britz underlines that what the nation’s struggles should turn memory into ritual and grievance to celebration, which he says is something unique not only to South Africa but all black people across the diaspora.
Britz further stresses that young people in the country, like in many parts of the world, especially black youth, are navigating systems that can deny them access, opportunity, and visibility, whether it’s through poverty, unemployment, underfunded education, or broader structural inequality.
Graphic by Sibusiso Biyela
