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In the year 1976 in Soweto South Africa, thousands of black school children flocked to streets  to protest against poor education and to demand to be taught in their own language. They demonstrated peacefully, aiming at sending a message to the Boers' government. Their message was bitter for the leaders who were not leady to listen. Like the madman who can use a gun to kill a mosquito, is how the Boers reacted. Hundreds of these children were shot and lost their lives.

Since the gun or bullet kills only the body, but neither thoughts nor soul can be harmed, the demonstrations couldn’t be stopped by bullets. The subsequent violence killed and harmed various innocent young people.

The leaders of the OAU decided to set a memorial date for these young heroes who lost lives in Soweto, even if the decision to mark this day came late in 1991, more than 14 years after the incident. It was still a wise decision.

This memorial day was given a name: African Child. It was at first celebrated on 16 June 1991 and from that date, every year, the day is commemorated. Apart from commemorating the Soweto heroes, the day has now become special for remembering the many problems facing African children.
In my country, Tanzania, this day is commemorated by sports, songs, drums and so forth, which are trying to remind Tanzanians of the problems facing African children. Unquestionably, children are not reminded of the heroes of Soweto as their role model.

Are the present African children reminded of how the Soweto children were ready to die for a better life for the next generation? The children’s bloodshed in Soweto contributed much to the independent South Africa and the fight of racism. Are these remembered today or do we simply remain stuck in dancing?

It's time for African children to reject poor living conditions, education, health, food, shelter, blue collar jobs, early marriages, female genital mutilation, rape and living in difficult environments. The African child has been forsaken.

With no good systems for teaching morals in our families, TV is left to be our teacher. Religious leaders have no clear system of teaching morals to their young followers; they think ten minutes a week is a enough time to teach morals to children and youths. They support a mindset in youths and children that relies on miracles instead of thinking with their own brains.

The education system in a country like mine is not favorable to children from nursery school, primary, to the university level. There is no clear direction in education systems. We now witness African children and youths lacking employment, with some running away to go abroad in search of greener pasture (to be slaves).

The number of orphans and street children is rising, and the number of children doing tough jobs in mining and plantations is rising too. All of these have not had any clear system to teach them morals -- the world is teaching them!

In Tanzania, our national budget should have taken special consideration of children and youths, but unfortunately, they are forsaken! The budget’s priority is allocated for buying expensive cars, per diems, and trips -- mostly for government leaders!

How do we improve our education systems for African youths and children? By prioritising luxuries in our national budget? The child/youth raised in an environment full of corruption, bribery, sexuality, laziness, forgery etc, is forsaken.

We can’t build the future of Africa without investing in young people. We need to encourage nationalism in the young generation.

In Soweto, children flocked to the streets, careless of their enemy’s powers, to demand their rights: a good form of education which could enable them to develop good morals. Today we have the same problems across the continent. The gap between the haves and have-nots is growing; there's no good education for the have-nots.

The major weapon for African the child is education. Our education systems should be free from inequality based on economic classes. Moral education is much needed. African morals must be prioritised for various children.