Editor's Letter: Are you a potato, egg or coffee bean?

The classic bedtime story of the “potato, egg and coffee bean” became the biggest source of inspiration in curating this Youth issue.

There is naïveté and purity in the tale that “smells like teen spirit”. Its story of ingenuity, innocence, and hope is the spine of childhood development.

These attributes are often the first steps towards independence, whether by building vocabulary, awakening creativity, sparking the imagination or showing how to solve problems.

It’s during one episode of my new favourite show, The Tourist, with the brilliant Jamie Dornan, that I’m reminded of the important lesson of the “potato, egg and coffee bean”. To refresh your memory, this adolescent story offers crucial wisdom to those on the verge of adulthood. A wise father gives his naive daughter, struggling to cope with the many hardships in life, great advice.

He’s rather philosophical, using the analogy of boiling water in three different pots, each with either an egg, potato, or coffee bean. Some 30 minutes later, he shows his daughter that, while all three got the same treatment, the potato softened and the egg hardened.

But the coffee bean transformed the water and produced something entirely new. The moral of the story is that, in whatever situation you are presented with in life, you shouldn’t become weak or hard; rather become magical and find new meaning.

Past, present or future — that, to me, should be the essence of youth culture. Over almost 10 months I embarked on a journey of exploring and uncovering the current youth patterns in fashion, music, art, interests, and behaviour.

This issue was birthed last September in Accra, Ghana, where I attended the Global Citizen Festival with a hot lineup that included South Africa-based firecracker Uncle Waffles, Ghanaian megastar Gyakie, US supernova SZA, British rap giant Stormzy, and Nigerian chameleon Tems.

It was a melting pot of youth culture, music, fashion, and art. Ironically, this issue concluded where it started, in West Africa, but this time around in Lagos, Nigeria (read all about it on p. 16).

With every destination I visited between those two pit stops — which included my home village in Limpopo, the Wild Coast, Mthatha, and Cape Town — the issue would take a different shape. Keeping the youthful wisdom of “potato, egg and coffee bean” in mind, I went with the flow. I continued to do the same as I delivered a masterclass on the importance of networking and job hunting for youth at the EmpowaYouth week in Orange Farm.

While youth culture varies across borders in terms of values and behaviour, there is a bond formed by music. In every corner of the world the kids can’t get enough of the Yanos — the repetitive hooks and bright melodies of Focalistic, Kabza De Small, and Kamo Mphela were prevalent. Around Human Rights Day, I attended a four-day amapiano tour, hosted by streaming service Spotify, launching in Mamelodi and concluding in Soweto. Social-media influencers from Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and Mzansi were united by the sound.

The homegrown genre continues to enjoy its golden era on the world stage. So, it was only appropriate that a global amapiano superstar like Tyla grace the cover of the Youth issue. She has taken the sound on a European tour with Chris Brown and at Milan Fashion Week, and is now fusing it with afrobeat through her collaboration with Nigeria’s Ayra Starr.

From Dolce & Gabbana to Mugler, Tyla celebrates the wonderful marriage between music, fashion, and youth culture. Not only is she the queen of the Yanos but her style also defines Gen Z’s obsession with the “core” style aesthetics that form part of many TikTok users’ #fyp (For Your Page).

The new lexicon development refers to ways of dressing and embracing a specific aesthetic, as opposed to a trend. With that in mind, every page in this issue is core-fantastic — whether Barbiecore, cottagecore, mermaidcore, kidcore, regencycore, bubblegumcore or what have you.

Gen Z may have stormed the term and taken it to viral heights, but millennials invented it around 2014, starting with “normcore”. International models and brothers Denetric and Lebo Malope showcase various core styles inside. Then, for some eye candy, we simply can’t get enough of newcomer and hottie Tembinkosi Ngcukana from Gqeberha: The Empire.

While this issue highlights all that is beautiful about youth culture, there are many disadvantages, adversities, and inequities still to overcome. But I challenge your mindset to push beyond it. Are you a potato, egg or coffee bean?