Context of the Bornfrees Series

 

1994 saw the dawn of a new South Africa.  It was the year that her people threw off their oppressive past and stepped forward into a bright future.   It was the year that Democracy in South Africa became a reality; it was the year miracles happened.  For the first time her people could choose how they were to be governed and as a result, Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as President.  It was the year that hope was born.  And it was the year that a new generation of 677 000 children were born free. 

10 years later, as we celebrated our first decade of democracy, we wondered if these children had benefited from being born into a free society.  What started as a discussion around a table translated into a cross-country voyage of discovery and the production of a 13-part documentary series. We searched for children from different races, cultures, creeds and classes who would give us the clearest understanding of what it truly means to be born free. The children we interviewed opened our eyes to an incredible world of honesty and insight that we never expected.  They were all remarkably different, with lives that are as diverse as the country in which they live.  But these eleven all have one thing in common; they were born in 1994, and together they stories they told formed the first series of ‘Bornfrees’ on South African television screens.

Five years on, the Bornfrees entered a new phase: the midst of the angst filled teen years and once again the production team visited the same group of young people, spent time with them, and hoped to glean how their experiences, hopes, dreams, aspirations and lives had transformed in five years. What impact had 15 years of democracy had on them? We were not disappointed – our chosen Bornfrees, luminous, honest and real as ever, reflected what being teenagers meant to a wildly diverse group of young people, and so the follow up series, ‘Bornfrees II, The Teenage Years’ was born. Again, this series provided a measurement of the impact democracy has on our country through the eyes, voices and lives of its children.

Three years on and the group of Bornfrees are poised at the edge of another milestone: They all turn 18 in 2012. This translates into passing or failing matric, becoming ‘legal,’ learning to drive, being allowed to vote, making decisions about tertiary education, leaving home, engaging in adult relationships, pursuing careers or pursuing money, defining their identity as a new generation of school leavers in South Africa today. Do they share the same values, opinions, ambitions, thoughts about their home, their peers, their parents and their country as before, how have they matured as they advance into a new stage in their lives, against the backdrop of a democracy now 18 years in the making?


By Anita Rowland