In his 1923 essay “The Problem of Generations,” Hungarian sociologist Karl Mannheim argued that the social consciousness of youth is heavily influenced by epochal events in which youth play a prominent role. Each generation, he wrote, develops an original and distinctive consciousness connected to the scope and pace of historical change that is potentially at odds with the previous generation.

Over the past year, we have seen such age-based divides emerge, widen, and erupt in South Africa in a series of student uprisings that have called attention to institutional racism and inaccessibility at universities and the working conditions of precarious campus workers. Their grievances speak to the violent continuities between the apartheid past and present, where, for the vast majority, access to post-secondary education and a job is out of reach.

The student demonstrations come at a critical juncture in post-apartheid South Africa, with a rising tide of community protests against inadequate service delivery and labor unrest outside officially sanctioned union channels. Alongside widespread state corruption, these various upsurges are contributing to the erosion of the ruling African National Congress’s legitimacy.