[Music]
the Oxford Dictionary defines as
disturbance or problems which interrupts
and events activity or process we our
society have socialized that into being
something negative like it is bad to be
a disruptive boy it is bad to be a
disruptive girl well I personally don't
think so
disruption can actually be a good thing
in fact the revolutionary acts the true
essence of activism lies in being
disruptive and the future of Africa
could be in the hands of young
disruptive individuals my name is Alex
Patel a young African girl who is proud
to be disruptive in every apologetic and
apologetic sense after this talk you
must probably want to be disruptive
trust me the story of my life is
literally a tale of being disruptive
anywhere and everywhere I go
i disturb and interrupt systems that in
place injustice on young people and
woman such as when I was told in high
school I quote
zuleyka afros aren't allowed here they
look like birds nests and I said asking
me to change my hair is asking me to
erase my blackness and I everyday
proudly set foot into school with my
natural hair simply taking that decision
I disrupted a system a system of your
eccentric beauty standards embedded in
school hair rules of course it didn't
all start there
it began during my very complicated
childhood as I navigated my way through
trying to embrace my identity as a young
African girl through the
post-colonial period which we find
ourselves in and in my case the South
African case suppose the part a period
which is quite difficult to do my father
is Indian originally from India and my
mother is India belly originally
originally from EMPA malanga in South
Africa what made my childhood so
complicated was the impact that's not
Africa's deeply racist history had on
the minds of people see I was born in a
time when all South Africa could say to
young people was you were born free
embrace democracy one free meant that
you were born after 1994 in a time of
what was apparent freedom political
freedom to be precise but you see
political freedom means absolutely
nothing without mental emancipation we
can never really truly get rid of
colonization and its systems if we never
rid ourselves of the colonialism systems
that we've been indoctrinated with in
our minds we can never really get rid of
any system of racial prejudice if we
don't head-on confront the oppressor in
our minds which is the greatest
oppressor currently see I had a
traumatizing childhood where I
experienced many traumatizing racist
events during a time when I was told I
was free and I needed to feel good about
democracy as a child I never felt that
freedom I walk I could walk around in
town and have the public negatively look
at me in confusion and I would have
people make snarky remarks such as why
is an Indian man walking around with a
black child with odd looking kinky hair
or when I was with my mother society
would assume that my mother was my nanny
and they would ask why she's with a
college child or the most common and the
most uncomfortable experiences that
happened to me almost all the time in my
life people would unpleasantly grab my
hair without my permission I
besides without my permission and asked
me what I am
what am I am I not human what am i or
when I was repeatedly expelled from
primary schools because my hair which
was criminalized and I was told in grade
seven that I froze are not permitted and
I was like I'm not committing any crime
I am simply allowing hair to grow from
my scalp as it stood like any other
human being when I got to high school
and I experienced one thing which I
believe led to my activism it made me
want to do anything and any and
everything to fight for a better society
one I got pencil tested which was
previously used by the apartheid
government to determine one's race in my
case it was used to determine my race or
like the racist said they wanted to
prove that my hair was not worthy of
fitting in never in my entire life had I
felt the way I felt that day I remember
I got home and I cried my eyes out I
never wanted to ever hear the term born
free from these stories I've just told
you that have made me disruptive
surprisingly these stories aren't unique
at all these are average stories like
any young black South African could
narrate to you they could tell you about
their in their incidents with
institutionalized racism they could
narrate to you many tales of being
discriminated against in a country where
they are told that they are free see
these ideas of colonialism are still so
attached to our institutions what was
then constitutionalized is now
institutionalized and is what drives the
institutions of our country now my first
year in high school was quite
interesting because I finally met the
people I'd been looking for throughout
my entire disruptive life I finally met
disruptive people that embraced me
I met a group of girls who had the same
passion to disrupt because we hated the
in Justices we are experienced we wanted
to recreate education we wanted to
transform education into something that
was afro centric into a system where
discipline was not placed on black
children's identities where they could
be free freely grow their natural hair
and go to school freely when they would
not be subjected to institutionalized
racism and would be troop on fries on
the 26th of August 2016 we silently
decided to process the system by coming
in all black and African hair traps in
silent resistance to the system the
following day on the 27th we decided to
grab the public's attention by leading a
silent protest at a school event when we
marched around the school and obviously
there's never a good positive response
to disruptive behavior so we were
confronted by a high-risk security team
hired by the school which happens to be
men which were probably three times my
size and were armed and then I was 13
and we were told that we were going to
get arrested I didn't understand why I
had to be arrested for attempting to
disrupt injustice and attempting to
recreate society I didn't understand
and so we resisted and we talked to
security guards to arrest us and I
remember saying that you can arrest us
all in my mind I remember thinking that
if I didn't do this future generations
to come would be subjected to the same
experiences that I experienced children
would still get pencil tested children
would still be lied to and told that
they're born freeze yet they can't grow
their hair freely and so we were so
determined to disrupt this Eurocentric
education system and to transform it
into something that would work for
Africa in the future and so after the
protest we were assisted by our very
very good friend Twitter
which assisted to further our cause
and assisted us in getting the world's
attention so we decided to go onto
Twitter and create a hashtag called
hashtag stop racism at pretoria high
school for girls I personally never
thought that it would reach it would
reach the attention that it got I never
thought that it would go global and
viral so through this we were able to
create a platform for young black people
to share photos of their natural hair
and share stories of how they
experienced institutionalized racism in
what is called a Democratic Society and
it allowed for young students to also
speak about experiences that they
currently experiencing in this in their
schools this happened to be one of the
best times of my entire disruptive life
since then I unapologetically embody the
spirit of being disruptive as a young
black female activist I exist
unapologetically in a lot of the space
in a lot of my spaces as the youngest
and where I disrupt systems of ageism
that say that young people cannot lead I
continue to exist as a woman where i
disrupt patriarchy which brings me to
what I want you to take home with you
there are three pointers on how to
embody a positive spirit of disruption
and this is my idea with sharing with
you to begin the process of disruption
one most importantly disrupt injustice
by all means necessary that begins by
disrupting the biggest oppressor your
mind anything would be invalid without
mental emancipation decolonization is
something that is meant to be felt first
in your mind body and spirit with
decolonize thinking you can then begin
to decolonize systems around you to
recreates we cannot disrupt if we are
not ready to recreate so if we are to
decolonize education then we would have
to recreate Afrocentric education we
would need to design a brand new future
for Africa which is
centric and create systems which include
young people as the future is ours to
inherit and we must be determined by us
we need to create platforms for young
people to come and express themselves
and new avenues for them to come and
recreate and Africa they want to see in
the future and in Africa they want to
live in in the future and finally three
leap leadership once we have recreated
this exciting Afrocentric vibrant future
we need to allow young people's leaders
young people cannot have their futures
determined by those who won't be part of
it young people's leadership is how we
will get Africa to move forward and
never backward
so in conclusion disruption is
absolutely beautiful so there are young
people we always ourselves to be
disruptive
we always our emancipation to be
disruptive we owe it to the future
generation to be disruptive we owe it to
a future that we are yet to inherit and
occupy to be disruptive a future that
must be determined by ourselves on our
terms so young people don't just stare
to be disruptive of course go on and
beat disruptive go on and disrupt
injustice around you and if you ought to
truly ever disrupt injustice you have
got to do it with every ounce of
confidence and fearlessness that exists
within you and in the spirit of being
disruptive a loser continuar thank you
you