The Bornfrees at Ten

When we first met the Bornfrees in 2004 they were ten years old and living in all different kinds of circumstances, sharing only the commonality of being born into freedom. They were selected after a lengthy casting process where over 400 ten year olds were interviewed, to represent the 677 000 children who were born in 1994. As we embark on the third season of Bornfrees and look into their lives as they turn 18 years old. let's look back at their lives at the age of ten:

Thabisa Nkani - KwaZulu Natal

Thabisa stays with her mother and helper in a beautiful new surburb. She is a performer, extremely confident, talkative, and very well informed and an actress in the making.  She is just herself and comfortable with whom she is.

She is a very busy child and she loves it. She is also doing very well at school and is a born leader.  When you hear her speak you would be sure that English is her mother tongue, but she is Zulu.  Her mother still gets surprised by the way she takes initiative at her age. If she decides to do something she gets fully committed to it. Her mother, who is a single parent, is very proud of her. She mentions that Thabisa’s energy is contagious. If she had a bad day at work, she knows that once she gets home to Thabisa her world will change as Thabisa will in a counselling manner talk her out of it.

Sasha-Lee Subramoney

The neighbourhood was entirely different to the others, with every door decorated with a wreath in a different colour. Sasha Lee’s home is a small double story house, with a very small granny flat where Sasha Lee’s mother and father stays with Sasha Lee’s living inside the house with her grandparents. She is a very friendly and talkative child. She talks about books and stories she has read.

She is a very protected child. Her parents speak of the difficult times they have experienced with her kidney problem since she was a baby. She has had to stay indoors most of time. This is why she has now become such a bookworm, she confesses. She is an intelligent and a well-informed child. In all the exams she has written all she expects in first position and that’s what she gets.  She is passionate about her studies and her parents are very proud. Her bedroom wall is decorated with all the certificates she has been awarded at school. Her favourite thing to do is reading. She is very confident and is comfortable in front of the camera. It is no surprise that she has decided that one day she will read e-news for a living. She has an opinion and an answer for every question asked.

Keagan de Beer - Western Cape

When meeting Keegan, the first thought was of his star potential. He’s a total charmer, quick to laugh and smile and eager to chat. The house was neat with everything in its place. This was a warm family. You could see that sitting around the table with good food is one of the core values of this home. The overall impression was that this was a warm, loving, friendly family and community.

Aminah Raciet - Western Cape

Having been following the directions to the house, before the crew even spotted the house number they saw Aminah’s dad in the wheel chair in front of the house. The dad told them how excited he was for Aminah and what an intelligent girl she is and that she always holds position 1 in her class. One of the things that make  Aminah special is her love and care for her dad.  By choice she has taken full responsibility for emptying her father’s urine bag and bathes her father whenever she can. Aminah’s hobbies are shopping and playing games at N1 city mall. From conversations with Aminah’s father, what holds this family together is their Islamic religion and prayer.  The fact that he is alive is a miracle as he stayed in hospital for 3 years and was not expected to survive.

Likhaya Poni - Western Cape

Likhaya is one of those kids that seem to be shy in front of adults and yet are very popular and admired by other kids because of their special leadership qualities.  Children in his community know each other very well. They all play together unlike children living in the suburbs. It was very interesting to see that children of ages between 8 –12 are looking after their brothers or sisters in this community while parents are at work. While they play they also assist each other in keeping an eye on their brothers or sisters.

The fact that the family lives in a small house could also be the reason that LIkhaya spends most of his time on the field, playing. His mother also stated that, immediately after school, Likhaya’s routine is to get home, find something to eat and then he’s off to the field – everyday. In order to assist Likhaya’s father who works for a Steel factory, Likhaya’s mother spends time during the day sewing. It’s one of Likhaya’s favourite things – to do deliveries and collecting payments in the community but he also complains that people don’t pay. Likhaya’s greatest desire is to move from Nyanga to a school in the suburbs, a white school,  so that he can learn to speak good English.

Tursia Fisher - Western Cape

Tursia lives in very poor circumstances in the heart of Mannenberg – gangster city. Her home is situated in the ‘quiet’ part of the neighbourhood. Tursia is a quiet spoken girl who took quite a while to warm up to the camera. Her mother has brought her up with sound values and Tursia has a strong bond with her mom - what makes her the saddest is when her mom is angry with her. She likes to please, working hard around the house, yet has an inner strength that comes across on camera. Tursia feels strongly about Aids. She is quite religious which comes across in her statements, politically she is well-informed and her dream is to go on holiday to Durban.

Khumbula Ngcobo - Gauteng

This is a very confident, outgoing young man. As a 10 year old, with brothers and sisters all in university, it is no surprise he seems older than his years.  His brother and 2 sisters seem to adore him and he definitely uses them as his lift clubs -to pick up or to go see his friends. Khumbula can be described as a sociable, go-getter who will achieve in life.

Aletta Beukes - Gauteng

Aletta is an affectionate girl dressed in old clothes. Her parents live in a dilapidated shack with 15 people living with Aletta on the property, including a black family living in a shack at the back of the house – they are squatters. Aletta, along with her older and younger brother and mom and Dad,  live in the one room of the shack.
 

She is an impressive actress and sang various songs and performed extracts from her school play to camera with her best friend Eva, the black girl who lives in the shack at the back of her house. Aletta is an incredible example of the new SA, she has no notion of racism or the history thereof, yet lives a life free of racial prejudice due to the circumstances she lives in, living side by side with a black family.

Thandeka Mbokazi - Kwa-Zulu Natal

Thandeka lives in rural Kwazulu-Natal with her step-mom, dad and brother in a new flat that her father has just built. Her step-mother stays at home while her father works in the military as a soldier for the South African Defence Force. She is a reserved child and loves dancing and reading. These were the times a smile could be seen on her face.

Bornfree Profile: Zimkhitha from Cape Town

Welcome to our awesome series of interviews with Bornfrees! We'll be highlighting the stories of Bornfrees from all around South Africa and are keen to hear from YOU if you were born into freedom - make contact through our email bornfrees18@gmail.com

Today we meet Zimkhitha from Cape Town:

BornfreesSA: Tell us who you are and a bit about yourself?

I am Ntombizimkhita Kundlwana. I was born at Mthatha General Hospital on the 19th of January 1994. I'm originally from the Eastern Cape but currently living in the Western Cape with both my parents. My father is employed by the Department of Correctional Services and I live within the perimeter of Pollsmoor Prison. I have 4 siblings, 2 older sisters a younger brother and younger sister and a niece and nephew.

I'm currently in grade12 at South Peninsula High School. I've been at SPHS since 2008. I do the following subjects : English HL, isiXhosa FAL, Life Orientation, Mathematical Literacy, Business Studies, Economics, Dramatic Arts. I'm in the process of applying into university to study Social Development or Education or Public Management. I'd like to pursue a career in Social Work because of the increasing social problems that face our country on a daily basis.

BornfreesSA: Who are the important people in your life?

The most important person in my life is my parents. They have given me a life I can only be greatful for. They've always given me what they could never have in their lives, made sacrifices for me and I don't know if I would've been who I am without them. Even if I were to lose them now I'd be unable to continue to build my life the way I plan to in order to achieve my goals.

BornfreesSA: Do you have rolemodels you look up to?

Role Models come and go and sometimes you have more than one. A role model who inspires you can be a personal character and one who inspires you in a career sense.  Oprah Winfrey is my role model. She was sexually abused and I admire how she used that to make her stronger. She has enormous wealth and I believe God blesses her with increasing wealth because she shares with the less fortunate, she travels to areas of need and leaves her mark. Most people respond to abuse as a punishment from God, they use it as an excuse to treat other people even themselves in a bad manner.

Noleen Maholwana Sangqu is my other role model. She's a conservative woman. She has her own talk show, which is something I'd dearly like to have one day. I'd like to be a talk show host for a show on Social Issues. You will see the talk show similarity between Noleen and Oprah.

BornfreesSA: What are the benefits of being a Bornfree?

Benefits of being a bornfree is cause of being born post apartheid. Born into a new and democratic SA.

BornfreesSA: What are the difficult parts of being a Bornfree?

Negetive aspects of being a born free. Well we are born into a period of reconciliation. A new start. Stories that we don't have first hand experience of. We are in constant wonder of yesterday. Was is really like this? Is the new SA very transformed? Has there been change? Where would I have been if I were born that time?

The after effects of apartheid affect us even though we were not around that time. We face racism on a daily basis. The conflict is still in the air we breath. It's like walking into your parents fighting and when you walk in they stop fighting. The room will be filled with tension you don't know why they were fighting but you are there experiencing the bad vibes. 

BornfreesSA: What's your idea of a perfect day?

My perfect day is waking up at 6am, getting a bath and leaving for school at 7am getting to school maybe at 7:40. Starting school and finishing it in a good mood. Going home and taking a nap, cooking supper watching a bit of tv studying or homework then sleeping. A perfect day is when I don't cry or hurt.

BornfreesSA: What are your dreams for your future?

I'd like a career in Social Work and my biggest dream is to be a TV personality that people can admire and look up to not for material purpose but because of my impact on society.

BornfreesSA: Do you have a message for other Bornfrees?

Set goals and work towards achieving them. Your life is in the palm of your hands - put it in a pocket or lift it up high.

Thank you very much. I've been following Bornfrees since 2004 and always wondered how and where they were picked etc but now I'm glad to be at least on the Facebook page! I hope they are all well and nothing of a social issue has happened to them.

Bornfrees Inspiration: Michael Apted's Seven Up series

In 2004, E-tv briefed Okuhle Media (then Page to Pictures) to shoot a documentary series based on a similar concept to Michael Apted’s British series, 7 UP.  The brief was to follow the lives of a selection of South African children who share the commonality of being born in the year South Africa celebrated its first democratic elections, in an effort to record their hopes and dreams and gain an understanding of how their lives have been affected by freedom. 

We'd like to reflect on the history of Michael Apted's Up series as it's an important element in the development of the series and as the latest instalment 56 Up broadcasts in May 2012.

Apted was a researcher (a key member of the production team) when Granada had the idea of filming a group of seven-year-old children from very different backgrounds for the British current affairs tv show World in Action. The first programme in 1964 proved a huge success and when Granada followed up the subjects at seven-yearly intervals Apted was at the helm, directing all the subsequent programmes, including the latest update, 56 Up. Seven Up! and its successors have turned out to be a jewel in television's crown, a precious, emotionally resonant social document, and a concept since copied in other countries. The premise of the film was taken from the Jesuit motto "Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man", which is based on a quotation by Ignatius Loyola.

The children were selected to represent the range of socio-economic backgrounds in Britain at that time, with the explicit assumption that each child's social class predetermines their future. Every seven years, the director, Michael Apted, films new material from as many of the fourteen as he can get to participate. The purpose is also stated at the beginning of "7 Up," as, "Why do we bring these children together? Because we want to get a glimpse of England in the year 2000. The union leader and the business executive of the year 2000 are now 7 years old."

Apted is also well-known for the Hollywood movies he has directed since he moved to the USA, such as Guerillas in the Mist, Nell, The Coal Miner's Daughter, the James Bond 007 film The World is Not Enough, The Chronicles of Narnia: Adventures of the Dawn Treader and the series Rome.

According to Apted, 56 Up is expected to have its broadcast premiere from 13 to 15 May 2012. Watch a fascinating behind-the-scenes interview with Apted in which he ponders some of the ethical and narrative considerations of making 49 Up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpFsV489WuY

Apted says: "What other film would have spent 50 years, as we nearly will have done, examining somebody’s journey through life? To me, what’s moving about it is everybody has a story and every life is sort of heroic — what people go through, decisions you have to make — and the “Up” films sort of celebrate that".

The Up series has had both positive feedback (one of Robert Ebert's top ten movies) and criticism - some of the participants were unhappy with the scrutiny of their lives. But it was between 42 Up and 49 Up that the reality television phenomenon wove its influence into global television formats and now for this generation, our lives have never been this minutely chronicled through blogs, social media like Twitter and Facebook.

For those who live now, individual narratives are shaped as much by the participants as by the observers. Our Bornfrees are becoming their own Michael Apteds, revealing their preferences, socio-economic status, rituals of daily existence and the arc of their lives on their own terms. Is this examination a bad thing? Perhaps the self-introspection will lead us all towards our own greater self-awareness and empowerment.

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