This article examines the meanings ascribed to democracy by 74 township children in primary and intermediate schools outside Cape Town. The Xhosa children's racial and historical accounts form the qualitative substance to postulate democracy as "ubuntu" (respect). Embedded in a 'struggle for recognition', democratic belonging, being, and becoming is understood in relation to the speech acts of children and informed by Honneth's theory of recognition (love, rights, and solidarity). This case study is a move toward a theory of child voice that views children as not merely produced by schools but as active constructors of the democratic identities they hold.