“I think in South Africa it’s every young man’s dream if you play rugby to become a Springbok.”
The South Africa ‘UP’ series follows the personal journeys of a diverse range of young South Africans who were born in the apartheid era, filming them every seven years as they grew up through the country’s dramatic political changes….
I am poor. I want to be rich .… When you’re poor you struggle. You ask for food from other houses. You say ‘Can I have some sugar?’ I want to live with white people.
In 1992 apartheid South Africa Al Jazeera met up with 20 lively seven-year-olds who they followed every seven years in times of change. In this part of the series of eight films that follows the characters at age 7, 14, 21 and 28. The films where first broadcasted on Al Jazeera English in November 2013. The series, based on the award-winning version in Britain (UP Series) tracks their personal growth against the backdrop of their larger society.
“We have problems, big problems … like killing each other,” said seven-year-old Lunga in 1992, a resident of Durban, South Africa.
- Watch all the 7 parts here (Each episode is 47 minutes.)
Read more about the making of the series here.
Photo credit: Al Jazeera.