soweto uprising essay grade 9 pdf

A Powerful Essay on the Soweto Uprising

The Soweto Uprising Essay is an analysis of the 1976 student protests that occurred in South Africa’s Soweto township. It examines the causes, effects and legacy of the event that has become a major turning point in the country’s history. The uprising began after the South African government implemented the Afrikaans language as the medium of instruction in all schools, sparking widespread anger and protest from black students who had been denied access to quality education for years. The essay looks at the events leading up to the uprising and the consequences that followed, including the deaths of hundreds of young people and the crackdown on student protests by the South African government. It also examines the role of international pressure and the impact of the uprising on the liberation movement in South Africa . Finally, the essay looks at how the uprising has been remembered and commemorated in South Africa today , and the important role it continues to play in the country’s history.

Soweto Uprising Essay

The Soweto Uprising of 1976 was a pivotal moment in the history of South Africa . It was a spontaneous protest by students against the introduction of Afrikaans as a language of instruction in schools, which was seen as a symbol of the oppressive and racist apartheid government. The protests began in Soweto, a township near Johannesburg, and soon spread to other townships throughout the country. The violent response from the police sparked a nationwide uprising that lasted for months and left hundreds dead. The uprising ultimately resulted in the gradual dismantling of the apartheid system, and inspired a new generation of activists to continue the fight for freedom. It is a powerful symbol of the struggle for freedom and justice in South Africa , and is remembered as an important turning point in the country’s history.

Causes of the Uprising: Apartheid, Education System, and the Role of the Youth

The Soweto Uprising of 1976 was a pivotal moment in South African history , and the educational system was a major contributing factor. The apartheid government had implemented a schooling system that was designed to keep non-white South Africans in a state of subjugation, and the youth of Soweto were determined to stand up and fight for their rights. In this essay, we will examine the causes of the uprising and the role of the youth in leading the charge.

The apartheid government’s education policies had long been a source of tension in South African society, and the youth of Soweto were the first to challenge them. The segregation of education meant that non-white students were relegated to substandard schools with inadequate resources and teaching staff. Furthermore, the curriculum was heavily biased towards white culture and values, with little to no acknowledgement of African history or culture. This was a clear indication of the government’s intent to keep non-white South Africans in a state of inequality and powerlessness.

The youth of Soweto could no longer tolerate such injustice and in June 1976, they took to the streets in protest. The march was led by the South African Student Movement (SASM), a group of young activists who had become increasingly frustrated with the government’s oppressive policies. The protesters were met with a violent response from the police, who used tear gas and live ammunition to disperse the crowd. This only served to further fuel the anger of the youth and sparked an uprising that quickly spread across the country.

The Soweto Uprising of 1976 was a watershed moment in South African history , and the role of the youth in leading the charge cannot be overstated. The uprising highlighted the unequal nature of the apartheid government’s education system and served as a rallying cry for non-white South Africans to demand their right to equal education. The youth of Soweto were the catalysts for a movement that would eventually lead to the end of apartheid and the creation of a democratic South Africa .

Events of the Uprising: Protests, Clashes with Police, and the Aftermath

The Soweto Uprising began on June 16th, 1976 when a group of around 10,000 students gathered to protest the newly implemented Afrikaans language policy in South African schools . The students had grown increasingly frustrated with the government’s oppressive policies, and they had organized the protest to express their opposition. As the students marched, they were met with resistance from the police, who began firing at the protesters with live ammunition. The violence quickly escalated, with both sides engaging in a deadly battle that lasted for several days.

The immediate aftermath of the Soweto Uprising was characterized by chaos and unrest. The South African government declared a state of emergency and imposed a series of oppressive laws and regulations that further restricted the rights of its citizens. The government also implemented a series of censorship measures that sought to suppress any public discussion of the events that had occurred. In addition, international condemnation of the South African government’s actions began to mount, with several countries and organizations calling for an end to the apartheid system.

In the long-term, the Soweto Uprising had a profound impact on South African society. The event sparked a surge of anti-apartheid sentiment, which ultimately led to the dismantling of the system in the early 1990s. In addition, the event raised global awareness of the injustices of the apartheid regime and helped to galvanize the international community in the fight against this oppressive system.

Impact of the Uprising: International Attention, Increased Resistance, and Long-term Consequences

The Soweto Uprising of 1976 served as a pivotal moment in South African history and had an undeniable impact on the nation . International attention was brought to South Africa , and the uprising sparked a new wave of resistance to the oppressive apartheid regime. The long-term consequences of the uprising are still being felt today, as the country continues to grapple with its legacy of racial injustice.

The uprising also served to increase resistance to the oppressive regime. A new generation of activists emerged, determined to fight for racial equality and justice. The Black Consciousness Movement in particular had a significant impact, with its leaders becoming prominent figures in the struggle against apartheid. This movement was also influential in inspiring the formation of several liberation organizations, such as the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress.

The long-term consequences of the Soweto Uprising are still being felt today . In the years following the uprising, the apartheid government was eventually dismantled and the country transitioned to a democracy. However, racial injustice and inequality remain a major issue in South Africa , and the legacy of the uprising can be seen in the ongoing struggles of the nation’s black population.

The Soweto Uprising was a watershed moment in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa . The courage and determination of the students who took to the streets on June 16, 1976, in defiance of the racist regime, inspired a generation of freedom fighters. The uprising also showed the world the true nature of the apartheid system and the brutality of the regime. The events of June 16th changed the course of history in South Africa and laid the foundation for the eventual downfall of apartheid.

Austin Finnan

Austin Finnan is a blogger, traveler, and author of articles on the website aswica.co.za. He is known for his travels and adventures, which he shares with his readers on his blog. Finnan has always been passionate about exploring new places, which is reflected in his articles and photographs. He is also the author of several books about travel and adventure, which have received positive reviews from critics and readers.

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Grade 9 - Term 4: Turning points in modern South African History since 1948

For this complex period to be studied, the Sharpeville massacre, Soweto uprising and the release of Nelson Mandela and unbanning of liberation movements have been selected to gain a deeper understanding of South African History. These key turning points in South African history are a depiction of the conflict between the Government and the Black/ African population of the country, where the Sharpeville massacre occurred due to the resistance by the black population against pass laws that were implemented by the government; the June 1976 student uprisings were against the introduction of the Bantu Education Act and 1990 provided a significant turning point with the release of Nelson Mandela and the unbanning of liberation movements.

Sharpeville massacre

At the annual conference of the African National Congress (ANC) held in Durban on 16 December 1959, the President General of the ANC, Chief Albert Luthuli , announced that 1960 was going to be the "Year of the Pass." Through a series of mass actions, the ANC planned to launch a nationwide anti-pass campaign on 31 March - the anniversary of the 1919 anti-pass campaign.

A week later, a breakaway group from the ANC, the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) held its first conference in Johannesburg . At this conference, it was announced that the PAC would launch its own anti-pass campaign.

Early in 1960 both the ANC and PAC embarked on a feverish drive to prepare their members and Black communities for the proposed nationwide campaigns. The PAC called on its supporters to leave their passes at home on the appointed date and gather at police stations around the country, making themselves available for arrest. The campaign slogan was "NO BAIL! NO DEFENCE! NO FINE!" The PAC argued that if thousands of people were arrested, then the jails would be filled and the economy would come to a standstill.

Although the protests were anticipated, no one could have predicted the consequences and the repercussions this would have for South African and world politics. An article entitled "PAC Campaign will be test," published in the 19 March 1960 issue of Contact, the Liberal Party newspaper, described the build up to the campaign:

The Pan Africanist Congress will shortly launch a nationwide campaign for the total abolition of the pass laws. The exact date on which the campaign will start is still unknown. The decision lies with the P.A.C. President, Mr. R.M. Sobukwe. But members say that the campaign will begin 'shortly - within a matter of weeks.'

At a press conference held on Saturday 19th March 1960, PAC President Robert Sobukwe announced that the PAC was going to embark on an anti-pass campaign on Monday the 21st. According to his "Testimony about the Launch of the Campaign," Sobukwe declared:

The campaign was made known on the 18th of March. Circulars were printed and distributed to the members of the organisation and on the 21st of March, on Monday, in obedience to a resolution they had taken, the members of the Pan Africanist Congress surrendered themselves at various police stations around the Country.

At the press conference Sobukwe emphasized that the campaign should be conducted in a spirit of absolute non-violence and that the PAC saw it as the first step in Black people's bid for total independence and freedom by 1963 (Cape Times, 1960). Sobukwe subsequently announced that: 

African people have entrusted their whole future to us. And we have sworn that we are leading them, not to death, but to life abundant. My instructions, therefore, are that our people must be taught now and continuously that in this campaign we are going to observe absolute non-violence.

On the morning of 21 March, PAC members walked around Sharpeville waking people up and urging them to take part in the demonstration. Other PAC members tried to stop bus drivers from going on duty and this resulted in a lack transport for Sharpeville residents who worked in Vereeniging. Many people set out for work on bicycles or on foot, but some were intimidated by PAC members who threatened to burn their passes or "lay hands on them" if they went to work (Reverend Ambrose Reeves, 1966). However, many people joined the procession quite willingly.

Early on the 21st the local PAC leaders first gathered in a field not far from the Sharpeville police station, when a sizable crowd of people had joined them they proceeded to the police station - chanting freedom songs and calling out the campaign slogans " Izwe lethu " (Our land); " Awaphele amapasti " (Down with passes); " Sobukwe Sikhokhele " (Lead us Sobukwe); "Forward to Independence,Tomorrow the United States of Africa."

When the marchers reached Sharpeville's police station a heavy contingent of policemen were lined up outside, many on top of British-made Saracen armored cars. Mr. Tsolo and other members of the PAC Branch Executive continued to advance - in conformity with the novel PAC motto of "Leaders in Front" - and asked the White policeman in command to let them through so that they could surrender themselves for refusing to carry passes. Initially the police commander refused but much later, approximately 11h00, they were let through; the chanting of freedom songs continued and the slogans were repeated with even greater volume. Journalists who rushed there from other areas, after receiving word that the campaign was a runaway success confirmed "that for all their singing and shouting the crowd's mood was more festive than belligerent" (David M. Sibeko, 1976).

By mid-day approximately 300 armed policemen faced a crowd of approximately 5000 people. At 13h15 a small scuffle began near the entrance of the police station. A policeman was accidently pushed over and the crowd began to move forward to see what was happening.

According to the police, protesters began to stone them and, without any warning, one of the policemen on the top of an armoured car panicked and opened fire. His colleagues followed suit and opened fire. The firing lasted for approximately two minutes, leaving 69 people dead and, according to the official inquest, 180 people seriously wounded. The policemen were apparently jittery after a recent event in Durban where nine policemen were shot.

Unlike elsewhere on the East Rand where police used baton when charging at resisters, the police at Sharpeville used live ammunition. Eyewitness accounts attest to the fact that the people were given no warning to disperse. Eyewitness accounts and evidence later led to an official inquiry which attested to the fact that large number of people were shot in the back as they were fleeing the scene. The presence of armoured vehicles and air force fighter jets overhead also pointed to unnecessary provocation, especially as the crowd was unarmed and determined to stage a non-violent protest. According to an account from Humphrey Tyler, the assistant editor at Drum magazine :

The police have claimed they were in desperate danger because the crowd was stoning them. Yet only three policemen were reported to have been hit by stones - and more than 200 Africans were shot down. The police also have said that the crowd was armed with 'ferocious weapons', which littered the compound after they fled.

I saw no weapons, although I looked very carefully, and afterwards studied the photographs of the death scene. While I was there I saw only shoes, hats and a few bicycles left among the bodies. The crowd gave me no reason to feel scared, though I moved among them without any distinguishing mark to protect me, quite obvious with my white skin. I think the police were scared though, and I think the crowd knew it.

Within hours the news of the killing at Sharpeville was flashed around the world. 

On the morning of 21 March Robert Sobukwe left his house in Mofolo, a suburb of Soweto , and began walking to the Orlando police station. Along the way small groups of people joined him. In Pretoria a small group of six people presented themselves at the Hercules police station. In addition other small groups of PAC activists presented themselves at police stations in Durban and East London. However, the police simply took down the protesters names and did not arrest anyone.

When the news of the Sharpeville Massacre reached Cape Town a group of between 1000 to 5000 protestors gathered at the Langa Flats bus terminus around 17h00 on 21 March 1960. This was in direct defiance of the government's country-wide ban on public meetings and gatherings of more than ten persons. The police ordered the crowd to disperse within 3 minutes. When protesters reconvened in defiance, the police charged at them with batons, tear gas and guns. Three people were killed and 26 others were injured. Langa Township was gripped by tension and in the turmoil that ensued, In the violence that followed an employee of the Cape Timesnewspaper Richard Lombard was killed by the rioting crowd.

The Langa March, 30 March 1960

On 30 March 1960, Philip Kgosana led a Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) march of between 30.000-50.000 protestors from Langa and Nyanga to the police headquarters in Caledon Square. The protesters offered themselves up for arrest for not carrying their passes. Police were temporarily paralyzed with indecision. The event has been seen by some as a turning point in South African history. Kgosana agreed to disperse the protestors in if a meeting with J B Vorster , then Minister of Justice, could be secured. He was tricked into dispersing the crowd and was arrested by the police later that day. Along with other PAC leaders he was charged with incitement, but while on bail he left the country and went into exile. This march is seen by many as a turning point in South African history.

On the same day, the government responded by declaring a state of emergency and banning all public meetings. The police and army arrested thousands of Africans, who were imprisoned with their leaders, but still the mass action raged. By 9 April the death toll had risen to 83 non-White civilians and three non-White police officers. 26 Black policemen and 365 Black civilians were injured – no White police men were killed and only 60 were injured. However, Foreign Consulates were flooded with requests for emigration, and fearful White South Africans armed themselves.

The Minister of Native Affairs declared that apartheid was a model for the world. The Minister of Justice called for calm and the Minister of Finance encouraged immigration. The only Minister who showed any misgivings regarding government policy was Paul Sauer. His protest was ignored, and the government turned a blind eye to the increasing protests from industrialists and leaders of commerce. A deranged White man, David Pratt , made an assassination attempt on Dr. Verwoerd , who was seriously injured.

A week after the state of emergency was declared the African National Congress (ANC) and the PAC were banned under the Unlawful Organisations Act of 8 April 1960. Both organisations were deemed a serious threat to the safety of the public and the vote stood at 128 to 16 in favour of the banning. Only the four Native Representatives and members of the new Progressive Party voted against the Bill.

In conclusion; Sharpeville , the imposition of a state of emergency, the arrest of thousands of Black people and the banning of the ANC and PAC convinced the anti-apartheid leadership that non-violent action was not going to bring about change without armed action. The ANC and PAC were forced underground, and both parties launched military wings of their organisations in 1961.

Soweto uprising

The June 16 1976 Uprising that began in Soweto and spread countrywide profoundly changed the socio-political landscape in South Africa. Events that triggered the uprising can be traced back to policies of the Apartheid government that resulted in the introduction of the Bantu Education Act in 1953. The rise of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) and the formation of South African Students Organisation (SASO) raised the political consciousness of many students while others joined the wave of anti-Apartheid sentiment within the student community. When the language of Afrikaans alongside English was made compulsory as a medium of instruction in schools in 1974, black students began mobilizing themselves. On 16 June 1976 between 3000 and 10 000 students mobilized by the South African Students Movement 's Action Committee supported by the BCM marched peacefully to demonstrate and protest against the government’s directive. The march was meant to culminate at a rally in Orlando Stadium.

On their pathway they were met by heavily armed police who fired teargas and later live ammunition on demonstrating students. This resulted in a widespread revolt that turned into an uprising against the government. While the uprising began in Soweto, it spread across the country and carried on until the following year.

The aftermath of the events of June 16 1976 had dire consequences for the Apartheid government. Images of the police firing on peacefully demonstrating students led an international revulsion against South Africa as its brutality was exposed. Meanwhile, the weakened and exiled liberation movements received new recruits fleeing political persecution at home giving impetus to the struggle against Apartheid. 

Bantu Education Policy

The word ‘ Bantu ’ in the term Bantu education is highly charged politically and has derogatory connotations. The Bantu Educational system was designed to ‘train and fit’ Africans for their role in the newly (1948) evolving apartheid society. Education was viewed as a part of the overall apartheid system including ‘homelands’, urban restrictions, pass laws and job reservation. This role was one of labourer, worker, and servant only. As H.F Verwoerd, the architect of the Bantu Education Act (1953) , conceived it:

“There is no place for [the African] in the European community above the level of certain forms of labour. It is of no avail for him to receive a training which has as its aim, absorption in the European community”

Pre-apartheid education of Africans

It is mistaken however, to understand that there was no pre-apartheid educational marginalization of black South Africans. Long before the historic 1948 white elections that gave the Nationalist Party power, there was a system of segregated and unequal education in the country. While white schooling was free, compulsory and expanding, black education was sorely neglected. Financial underprovision and an urban influx led to gravely insufficient schooling facilities, teachers and educational materials as well as student absenteeism or non-enrolment. A 1936 Inquiry identified problems, only to have almost nothing done about these needs.

Bantu education and the racist compartmentalizing of education.

In 1949 the government appointed the Eiselen Commission with the task of considering African education provision. The Commission recommended 'resorting to radical measures' for the 'effective reform of the Bantu school system'.

In 1953, prior to the apartheid government's Bantu Education Act, 90% of black South African schools were state-aided mission schools. The Act demanded that all such schools register with the state, and removed control of African education from the churches and provincial authorities. This control was centralized in the Bantu Education Department, a body dedicated to keeping it separate and inferior. Almost all the mission schools closed down. The Roman Catholic Church was largely alone in its attempt to keep its schools going without state aid. The 1953 Act also separated the financing of education for Africans from general state spending and linked it to direct tax paid by Africans themselves, with the result that far less was spent on black children than on white children.

In 1954--5 black teachers and students protested against Bantu Education. The African Education Movement was formed to provide alternative education. For a few years, cultural clubs operated as informal schools, but by 1960 they had closed down.

The Extension of University Education Act, Act 45 of 1959, put an end to black students attending white universities (mainly the universities of Cape Town and Witwatersrand). Separating tertiary institutions according to race, this Act set up separate 'tribal colleges' for black university students. The so-called 'bush' Universities such as Fort Hare, Vista, Venda, Western Cape were formed. Blacks could no longer freely attend white universities. Again, there were strong protests.

Expenditure on Bantu Education increased from the late 1960s, once the apartheid Nationalist government saw the need for a trained African labour force. Through this, more African children attended school than under the old missionary system of education, albeit grossly deprived of facilities in comparison with the education of other races, especially whites.

Nationally, pupil:teacher ratios went up from 46:1 in 1955 to 58:1 in 1967. Overcrowded classrooms were used on a rota basis. There was also a lack of teachers, and many of those who did teach were underqualified. In 1961, only 10 per cent of black teachers held a matriculation certificate [last year of high school]. Black education was essentially retrogressing, with teachers being less qualified than their students.

The Coloured Person's Education Act of 1963 put control of 'coloured' education under the Department of Coloured Affairs. 'Coloured' schools also had to be registered with the government. 'Coloured' education was made compulsory, but was now effectively separated from white schooling.

The 1965 Indian Education Act was passed to separate and control Indian education, which was placed under the Department of Indian Affairs. In 1976, the SAIC took over certain educational functions. Indian education was also made compulsory.

Because of the government's 'homelands' policy, no new high schools were built in Soweto between 1962 and 1971 -- students were meant to move to their relevant homeland to attend the newly built schools there. Then in 1972 the government gave in to pressure from business to improve the Bantu Education system to meet business's need for a better trained black workforce. 40 new schools were built in Soweto. Between 1972 and 1976 the number of pupils at secondary schools increased from 12,656 to 34,656. One in five Soweto children were attending secondary school.

Oppression through inferior education and the 1976 Soweto uprising

An increase in secondary school attendance had a significant effect on youth culture. Previously, many young people spent the time between leaving primary school and obtaining a job (if they were lucky) in gangs, which generally lacked any political consciousness. But now secondary school students were developing their own. In 1969 the black South African Student Organization (SASO) was formed.

Though Bantu Education was designed to deprive Africans and isolate them from 'subversive' ideas, indignation at being given such 'gutter' education became a major focus for resistance, most notably in the 1976 Soweto uprising. In the wake of this effective and clear protest, some reform attempts were made, but it was a case of too little, too late. Major disparities in racially separate education provision continued into the 1990s.

When high-school students in Soweto started protesting for better education on 16 June 1976, police responded with teargas and live bullets. It is commemorated today by a South African national holiday, Youth day, which honors all the young people who lost their lives in the struggle against Apartheid and Bantu Education.

In the 1980s very little education at all took place in the Bantu Education system, which was the target of almost continuous protest. The legacy of decades of inferior education (underdevelopment, poor self-image, economic depression, unemployment, crime, etc.) has lasted far beyond the introduction of a single educational system in 1994 with the first democratic elections, and the creation of the Government of National Unity.

Strikes in the Schools

Presumably, not all students of the earlier generation 'worshipped the school authorities'! The first, recorded stoppages of lessons, (always called strikes in the South African newspapers), and the first riots in African schools occurred in 1920. In February, students at the Kilnerton training centre went on a hunger strike 'for more food'... read on

Cape Schools Join the Revolt

The school students in Cape Town reacted to the news they heard of events in Soweto. A teacher at one of the Coloured schools was later to write: 'We haven't done much by way of teaching since the Soweto riots first began. Kids were restless, tense and confused. 'There is no similar record of what the African children thought, but it is known that they were aware of the extra police patrols that were set up in the townships following June 16. After the first shootings in Cape Town, a teacher at one of the schools recounted... read on

The NUSAS Issue

Throughout the 1960's black students campaigned for the right to affiliate to the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) and just as steadfastly, the move was vetoed by the campus authorities. NUSAS was also keen to welcome the colleges into their fold. Not only would this make it the largest student organisation in the country, but it would also bring into the liberal ''old all student opponents of the government's apartheid policy.... read on

Down with Afrikaans

Countdown to conflict: The main cause of the protests that started in African schools in the Transvaal at the beginning of 1975 was a directive from the Bantu Education Department that Afrikaans had to be used on an equal basis with English as one of the languages of instruction in the department's secondary schools... read on

The introduction of Afrikaans alongside English as a medium of instruction is considered the immediate cause of the Soweto uprising, but there are a various factors behind the 1976 student unrest. These factors can certainly be traced back to the Bantu Education Act introduced by the Apartheid government in 1953. The Act introduced a new Department of Bantu Education which was integrated into the Department of Native Affairs under Dr Hendrik F. Verwoerd. The provisions of the Bantu Education Act and some policy statements made by the Bantu Education Department were directly responsible for the uprisings. Dr Verwoerd, who engineered the Bantu Education Act, announced that “Natives (blacks) must be taught from an early age that equality with Europeans (whites) is not for them”.

Although the Bantu Education Act made it easier for more children to attend school in Soweto than it had been with the missionary system of education, there was a great deal of discontent about the lack of facilities. Throughout the country there was a dire shortage of classrooms for Black children. There was also a lack of teachers and many of the teachers were under-qualified. Nationally, pupil-to-teacher ratios went up from 46:1 in 1955 to 58:1 in 1967. Because of the lack of proper classrooms and the crippling government homeland policy, students were forced to return to “their homelands” to attend the newly built schools there.

The government was spending far more on White education than on Black education; R644 was spent annually for each White student, while only R42 was budgeted for a Black school child. In 1976 there were 257 505 pupils enrolled in Form 1 at high schools which had a capacity for only 38 000 students.

To alleviate the situation pupils who had passed their standard six examinations were requested to repeat the standard. This was met with great resentment by the students and their parents. Although the situation did not lead to an immediate revolt, it certainly served to build up tensions prior to the 1976 student uprising.

In 1975 the government was phasing out Standard Eight (or Junior Certificate (JC)). By then, Standard Six had already been phased out and many students graduating from Primary Schools were being sent to the emerging Junior Secondary Schools. It was in these Junior Secondary schools that the 50-50 language rule was to be applied.

The issue that caused massive discontent and made resentment boil over into the 1976 uprising was a decree issued by the Bantu Education Department. Deputy Minister Andries Treurnicht sent instructions to the School Boards, inspectors and principals to the effect that Afrikaans should be put on an equal basis with English as a medium of instruction in all schools. These instructions drew immediate negative reaction from various quarters of the community. The first body to react was the Tswana School Boards, which comprised school boards from Meadowlands, Dobsonville and other areas in Soweto. The minutes of the meeting of the Tswana School Board held on 20 January 1976 read:

 "The circuit inspector told the board that the Secretary for Bantu Education has stated that all direct taxes paid by the Black population of South Africa are being sent to the various homelands for educational purposes there. 

"In urban areas the education of a Black child is being paid for by the White population, that is English and Afrikaans speaking groups. Therefore the Secretary for Bantu Education has the responsibility of satisfying the English and Afrikaans-speaking people. Consequently, as the only way of satisfying both groups, the medium of instruction in all schools shall be on a 50-50 basis.... In future, if schools teach through a medium not prescribed by the department for a particular subject, examination question papers will only be set in the medium with no option of the other language".

Teachers also raised objections to the government announcement. Some Black teachers, who were members of the African Teachers Association of South Africa, complained that they were not fluent in Afrikaans. The students initially organised themselves into local cultural groups and youth clubs. At school there was a significant number of branches of the Students Christian Movements (SCMs), which were largely apolitical in character. SASM penetrated these formations between 1974 and 1976. And when conditions ripened for the outbreak of protests, SASM formed an Action Committee on 13 June 1976, which was later renamed the Soweto Student Representative Council (SSRC). They were conscientised and influenced by national organisations such as the Black Peoples' Convention (BPC), South African Student Organisations (SASO)and by the Black Consciousness philosophy. They rejected the idea of being taught in the language of the oppressor.

The uprising took place at a time when liberation movements were banned throughout the country and South Africa was in the grip of apartheid. The protest started off peacefully in Soweto but it turned violent when the police opened fire on unarmed students. By the third day the unrest had gained momentum and spread to townships around Soweto and other parts of the country. The class of 1976 bravely took to the streets and overturned the whole notion that workers were the only essential force to challenge the apartheid regime. Indeed, they succeeded where their parents had failed. They not only occupied city centres but also closed schools and alcohol outlets.

June 16 Soweto Youth Uprising

The release of Nelson Mandela and unbanning of liberation movements The announcement by President FW de Klerk to release Nelson Mandela and unban the African National Congress (ANC), Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), the South African Communist Party (SACP) and other liberation movements was  received with mixed feelings inside and outside Parliament. Black and White South Africans celebrated the news as they were optimistic that the country was taking a turn for the better.  In Cape Town , Archbishop Mpilo Desmond Tutu was at St George's Cathedral with his congregation ready to celebrate an event he considered as the Second Coming.

It is believed that de Klerk’s decision to release Mandela and to unban political parties was the result of the following factors. Firstly, South Africa had been isolated through international trade sanctions to the extent that the South African economy was severely handicapped.  Coupled with this, the multiple States of Emergency measures enacted by the Apartheid State had consistently failed to quell the uprisings. Lastly South Africa was almost totally isolated from the international community in terms of cultural and sporting events.

This milestone was followed by tension-driven negotiations aimed at transferring power from white minority to the majority of South Africans. Though it brought about democracy, this journey was not totally without obstacles. These ranged from intensification of political violence in some parts of South Africa to unilateral declarations by some groups to break away from South Africa and form their own homelands. Some scholars have argued that de Klerk narrowly avoided a civil war that would have been severely detrimental to the country and the region as a whole. The decision taken by de Klerk was not an easy one, as he faced opposition not only from the political opponents, but also from his own party ( National Party ).

https://mg.co.za/article/2015-03-21-south-africa-remembering-the-sharpeville-massacre | http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/sharpeville-massacre-21-march-1960 | http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/langa-march-30-march-1960 | http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/june-16-soweto-youth-uprising | http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/fw-de-klerk-announces-release-nelson-mandela-and-unbans-political-organisations

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Here is a tree rooted in african soil. come and sit under its shade., the 16 june 1976 soweto students’ uprising – as it happened, it took one day for young south africans to change the course of the country’s history. the day was 16 june 1976. here’s an hour-by-hour account of the 1976 soweto students’ uprising..

Young men taunt police photographers in Soweto in June 1976. ( Doing Violence to Memory: The Soweto Uprising )

Mary Alexander

By 1976 the frustration had been building for a generation. Young black South Africans had become aware that the apartheid plan was to deny them a real education.

Education for ‘Bantus’

Hendrik Verwoerd on the cover of Time magazine, 26 August 1966. ( Time )

In 1953, five years after the National Party was elected on the platform of apartheid, the government passed the Bantu Education Act . This gave the central government total control of the education of black South Africans, and made independent schools for black children illegal.

The aim was simple: ensuring a stable and plentiful source of cheap labour. Black people would be educated only to the point where they were a useful but unthreatening (to white workers) workforce at the foundation of an economy built to only benefit white people.

A notorious quote by Hendrik Verwoerd, a National Party prime minister known as the “architect of apartheid”, makes the intention of the Act clear.

“There is no place for [the black person] in the European community above the level of certain forms of labour,” Verwoerd said in a 1954 speech , when he was still Minister of Native Affairs.

“For that reason it is of no avail for him to receive a training which has as its aim absorption in the European community while he cannot and will not be absorbed there. Up till now he has been subjected to a school system which drew him away from his own community and partically [sic] misled him by showing him the green pastures of the European but still did not allow him to graze there.”

Before the Act, South Africa had a rich tradition of independent mission schools. The education enjoyed by Nelson Mandela , Robert Sobukwe , Oliver Tambo , Govan Mbeki and many others allowed them to become some of the best minds in the country.

The apartheid government wanted cheap labour, but it also wanted to end the threat posed by bright African minds. Mission schools were closed, and universities such as Fort Hare had their high academic standards chopped to a stump.

A 1976 student’s poster on a fenced-in Soweto school reads: “Afrikaans is a sign of oppression, discrimination. To hell with Boere.” ( Doing Violence to Memory: The Soweto Uprising )

No education – in three languages?

By 1976 young black people’s frustration with their education, and the bleak future it offered, was ready to explode. The fuse was lit when the government proposed to introduce Afrikaans as the language of teaching.

Black South Africans spoke their own languages. These had already been ignored in their education. English had long been the medium of instruction – their second language – and was a language most urban young black people were at least familiar with. Now the authorities wanted the people they had denied an education to learn a third language.

Two of the many placards produced by students during the uprising (later confiscated and photographed by the police) highlight their antagonism to Afrikaans. The placards were written in English, the students’ second language. ( Doing Violence to Memory: The Soweto Uprising )

People who speak three languages are considered to be highly educated. These young people, given a rudimentary government education, were getting by in English. But almost none of them knew Afrikaans well enough to be taught in it, let alone write exams in the language.

Afrikaans was also the language of the oppressor. Today most of the people who speak Afrikaans aren’t white , but in the 1970s the language was still associated with Afrikaner nationalism, the ideology of the National Party, the nationalism of white Afrikaans-speaking people.

16 June 1976: 07h00

It’s a winter Wednesday morning, 16 June 1976. The Soweto Students Action Committee has organised the township’s high school pupils to march to Orlando Stadium to protest against the government’s new language policy.

The student leaders come mainly from three Soweto schools: Naledi High in Naledi, Morris Isaacson High in Mofolo, and Phefeni Junior Secondary , close to Vilakazi Street in Orlando.

The protest is well organised. It is to be conducted peacefully. The plan is for students to march from their schools, picking up others along the way, until they meet at Uncle Tom’s Municipal Hall . From there they are to continue to Orlando Stadium .

A photographer in a police helicopter captured this view of the students’ march, before the shooting started. ( Doing Violence to Memory: The Soweto Uprising )

Students gather at Naledi High. The mood is high-spirited and cheerful. At assembly the principal gives the students his support and wishes them good luck.

Before they start the march, Action Committee chairperson Tebello Motopanyane addresses the students, emphasising that the march must be disciplined and peaceful.

At the same time, students gather at Morris Isaacson High . Action Committee member Tsietsi Mashinini speaks, also emphasising peace and order. The students set out.

On the way they pass other schools and numbers swell as more students join the march. Some Soweto students are not even aware that the march is happening.

“The first time we heard of it was during our short break,” said Sam Khosa of Ibhongo Secondary School. “Our leaders informed the principal that students from Morris Isaacson were marching. We then joined one of the groups and marched.”

There are eventually 11 columns of students marching to Orlando Stadium – up to 10 000 of them, according to some estimates.

There have been a few minor skirmishes with police along the way. But now the police barricade the students’ path, stopping the march.

Tietsi Mashinini climbs on a tractor so everyone can see him, and addresses the crowd.

“Brothers and sisters, I appeal to you – keep calm and cool. We have just received a report that the police are coming. Don’t taunt them, don’t do anything to them. Be cool and calm. We are not fighting.”

It is a tense moment for police and students. Police retreat to wait for reinforcements. The students continue their march.

The marchers arrive at today’s Hector Pieterson Square . Police again stop them.

Here everything changed. There have been different accounts of what started the shooting.

The atmosphere is tense. But the students remain calm and well-ordered.

Suddenly a white policeman lobs a teargas canister into the front of the crowd. People run out of the smoke dazed and coughing. The crowd retreats slightly, but remain facing the police, waving placards and singing.

Police have now surrounded the column of students, blocking the march at the front and behind. At the back of the crowd a policeman sets his dog on the students. The students retaliate, throwing stones at the dog.

A policeman at the back of the crowd draws his revolver. Black journalists hear someone shout, “Look at him. He’s going to shoot at the kids.”

The only picture we have of Hastings Ndlovu is from his tombstone. Here it is used on the information board at the Hastings Ndlovu memorial site in Orlando West in Soweto.

A single shot rings out. Hastings Ndlovu , 17 years old (other sources say 15), is the first to be shot. He dies later in hospital.

After the first shot, police at the front of the crowd panic and open fire.

Twelve-year-old Hector Pieterson collapses, fatally injured. He is picked up and carried by Mbuyisa Makhubo , a fellow student, who runs towards Phefeni Clinic . Pieterson’s crying sister Antoinette Sithole runs alongside. The moment is immortalised by photographer Sam Nzima , and the image becomes an emblem of the uprising.

There is pandemonium in the crowd. Children scream. More shots are fired. At least four students have fallen to the ground. The rest run screaming in all directions.

Dr Malcolm Klein, a coloured doctor in the trauma unit at Baragwanath Hospital, is on his break when a nurse summons him, distress on her face.

“I followed her and was met by a grisly scene: a rush of orderlies wheeling stretchers bearing the bodies of bloodied children into the resuscitation room,” he recalled later. “All had the red ‘Urgent Direct’ stickers stuck to their foreheads …

“I stared in horror at the stretcher bearing the body of a young boy in a neat school uniform, a bullet wound to one side of his head, blood spilling out of a large exit wound on the other side, the gurgle of death in his throat. Only later would I learn his name: Hastings Ndlovu.”

Anger at the killings sparks retaliation.

Buildings and vehicles belonging to the government’s West Rand Administrative Buildings are set alight. Bottle stores are burned and looted.

More students are killed by police, particularly in encounters near Regina Mundi Church in Orlando and the Esso garage in Chiawelo . As students are stopped by the police in one area, they move their protest action elsewhere.

By the end of the day most of Soweto has felt the impact of the protest.

Schools close early, at about noon. Many students, so far unaware of the day’s events, walk out of school to a township on fire. Many join the protests. The uprising gains intensity.

Fires continue into the night. Armoured police cars, later known as “hippos”, start moving into Soweto.

Official figures put the death toll for 16 June at 23 people killed. Other reports say it was at least 200.

Most of the victims are under 23, and many shot in the back. Many more survive with disabling injuries.

The aftermath

The uprising spreads across South Africa. By the end of the year about 575 people have died across the country, 451 at the hands of police.

The injured number 3 907, with the police responsible for 2 389 of them. During the course of 1976, about 5 980 people are arrested in the townships.

International solidarity movements are roused as an immediate consequence of the revolt. They soon give their support to the students, putting pressure on the apartheid government to temper its repressive rule. Many students leave South Africa to join the exiled liberation movements.

This pressure is maintained through the 1980s, until resistance movements are finally unbanned in 1990. Four years later, on 27 and 28 April 1994, South Africa holds its first democratic elections.

Sources and more information

See the South African History Online feature The June 16 Soweto Youth Uprising .

Additional information – particularly the memories of Baragwanath Hospital trauma doctor Malcolm Klein – sourced from “The Soweto Uprising – Part 1” by Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu, in chapter 7 of The Road to Democracy in South Africa Volume 2 , published by the South African Democracy Education Trust . Many events omitted from this timeline are to be found in this comprehensive and moving account. The chapter can be downloaded in PDF .

Researcher Helena Pohlandt-McCormick has made a wealth of testimony, photos and documents about the 1976 student uprising available online. Browse her outstanding archive Doing Violence to Memory: The Soweto Uprising .

Researched and written by Mary Alexander. Updated 30 January 2023. Comments? Email [email protected]

Categories: History

Tagged as: Afrikaans , apartheid , education , Gauteng , History , language , population groups , Soweto

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Interview: Sifiso Ndlovu on the Soweto Youth Uprising (I)

                                                                                                                                                                       [Photo: lubilub/gettyimages]

In this episode of our interview series, our host Lynda Iroulo talks to Prof. Dr. Sifiso Ndlovu, Professor of History at the University of South Africa and executive director of the South African Democracy Education Trust.

Listen to part I of the interview, as Prof . Ndlovu  talks about how he experienced the Soweto Youth Uprising in June 1976 as a 14-year-old boy, the role of the Afrikaans language in education, and how an initial dissatisfaction led to a historic event.

Find an abridged transcription of the interview below or listen to the full one here:

Prof. Sifiso Ndlovu

Lynda: Professor Ndlovu, it’s great to have you here. I was impressed to hear that the uprising by the Soweto youths did not actually begin on June 16, 1976. So tell us, when did it all start?

Ndlovu: The dominant narrative claims that the Soweto uprisings were spontaneous as if we woke up one day on June 16 and decided to stand up against the oppressive Apartheid regime. I do understand why that narrative is dominant. It is due to the view that, as Africans, we don’t have agency, and in particular our children don’t have it. It is thought that there must be someone who pushes them from behind and influences them. So you have to come up with an easy and simplistic view that these kids were out of their minds and this was something that just happened out of the blue. I was about 14 years old then. After using English as a medium of instruction during our first year at secondary school, we were shocked to discover that we now were required to use Afrikaans, which, for us, was really the language of the oppressor.

Lynda: There are several African writers who have spoken about the fact that English is still the colonizers’ language and how they should not be speaking it. For you at the age of 14, what was it about Afrikaans that let you think you did not want it as a medium of instruction in your school?

Ndlovu: I did primary school in my own mother tongue. So when I went to high school, I was compelled to switch from using my mother tongue isiZulu to English in secondary school. In the second year of secondary school I was compelled to change again and now use Afrikaans. So in terms of education that doesn’t make sense, because it means that in three years I was using three mediums of instruction. For us, as young as we were, we knew that both languages were imposed on us as languages of the colonizers. But then again, I was 13 years old back then. I was supposed to be just like any other kid, but I was starting to think in these abstract terms.

Lynda: Which leads me to my next question: Most 14-year-olds are not thinking about organizing rallies and marches and demonstrations. At that point, you were doing that, even without the realization that at the end of the day, most of you were not going to make it. So how did you go about organizing and calling other people to join in?

Ndlovu : Only when I was a grown up I realized that this is what we were doing. Just thinking matters through and then reasoning that cultural imperialism is really what is at play here.  That is when we started to reason that we might be nerds and upstarts thinking that we know it all, but we were not the only people who were affected. We belonged to the same school, but the senior students had been exonerated, they were using English. The reasoning of the authorities was that it was too late for the senior students to be instructed in Afrikaans, so they let them complete school in English. They were the last group to use it. We then asked our teachers if we could meet the principal so that he could call the school board, the inspectors and those responsible in terms of Bantu education. Education in South Africa was separated into three spheres: Bantu education for us, a department for White education, and a department for both Indians and Coloureds. So we were the third class citizens, while the Indians and Coloreds were second-class citizens and the Whites first-class citizens. […]

We then decided during our class discussions that unity must prevail and we must go and conscientise the other students to be part of us because we were facing the common enemy, that is, Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. We eventually won them over, but in time we realized that we had been running around in circles discussing this issue. And using passive resistance as a weapon was not effective. We had to go above the ground now and let it be known throughout the schooling system that we were dissatisfied. That was then in May when we went out in public and went on strike officially as a school. The next level was to conscientise the other schools in order to join us. So we mandated some of the students to be our leaders and go establish a working relationship with the other schools. We were successful, but unlike us, their parents convinced them to go back to the classroom within a week or two. We then went back to the drawing board and decided to address the elephant in the room as a next step – that is, the senior students. They were carrying on with their education as if nothing was happening. Instead of providing us with their leadership, they were selling out in our eyes. It was now already June and they were writing their half-yearly examination. We said enough is enough and we were going to stop them from that. We were going to show them.

Lynda: At 14.

Ndlovu: (laughs) Yes! Once they were writing their exam, we invaded the classroom and tore up their exam papers and scripts and said ‘Out!’ We caught them off-guard and they then suddenly realized that this issue was serious, and they joined us. Then there was structure and organization. They said that amongst us, there should be representatives that would go to all the high schools in Soweto and mobilize them to join our struggle. That was when the organization of students sort of jelled because they called a meeting consisting of a committee of those students who were seniors, who were not affected, but who sympathized with us. They met with the guys that we had mandated to represent us on the 12th or 13th of June. It was during those deliberations that the committee took the decision to go out on Wednesday, the 16th of June and march to the regional offices of the Bantu Education Department to hand them over a memorandum that reflected our grievances as students. And then it was all systems go that we would be marching on that day. All the schools in Soweto would really be united and it was just going to be a peaceful march. We would drop the memorandum at the regional offices of the authorities and after that, we didn’t know what would happen. One didn’t know that, actually, we were making history. Up until today, that day is really etched in the memory of our history of South Africa.

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• Introduction

Origins of the protest

June 16 uprising.

• What is apartheid?
• When did apartheid start?
• How did apartheid end?
• What is the apartheid era in South African history?

June 16, 1976: the Soweto Uprising

By lucy kernick.

It was Wednesday. The young people who marched on 16 June 1976 recall a brisk morning, typical of the South African highveld in mid-winter. After morning assembly, where some sang Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika in place of the Lord’s Prayer, students took to the streets. The plan – deliberately concealed from adults – was to converge on Orlando West and register their collective dissent: ‘to hell with Afrikaans.’ Students marched in columns from different corners of Soweto, the vast African township that sprawled to the south west of Johannesburg, their numbers swelling to at least 10,000 along the route ( here is a map showing some of the routes and key sites ). There were raised fists, there was singing, chanting, placard-waving; there was tentative excitement about confronting ‘the system’ for the first time. Somewhere after 10am, this jubilant defiance was punctured:

Brothers and sisters, I appeal to you to keep calm and cool. We have just received a report that the police are coming. A student leader addressing the march at Orlando, quoted in Noor Nieftagodien, The Soweto Uprising (Johannesburg: Jacana Media, 2014, 95).

What followed varies in the telling. Some remember the release of police dogs, and a dog stoned to death. Some remember an order to disperse, others heard no such warning. Many remember the taste of tear gas, the first in their lives. All remember – those who witnessed it, those who heard as word hummed through the crowd and those who saw Sam Nzima’s wrenching photograph in the papers the following morning – that the police opened fire and killed a 13-year-old named Hector Pieterson . At around the same time, uncaptured by any camera’s lens, a 15-year-old named Hastings Ndlovu was also shot dead.

The immediate spark for the June 16 demonstration was the imposition of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in schools. Political objections fused with pedagogical ones. Afrikaans was the language of the most prominent white presence in townships, – the police – and of the ruling National Party. Most students and many teachers could barely speak Afrikaans, making it near impossible to learn or teach. Yet the 1974 decree dictated that, alongside ‘mother tongue’ instruction according to ethnic grouping, Afrikaans and English were to be used equally. This ruling intensified the frustrations of Soweto’s school-going youth. The Bantu Education system had, since 1953, provided underfunded schooling in overcrowded classrooms, with curricula designed to hem the aspirations of African children and prepare them for limited futures in poorly-paid jobs. Changes to this education system in the early-1970s both drastically expanded the secondary school population and worsened the conditions under which they learned (Hyslop 1999).

As the 1960s gave way to the 1970s, Soweto’s students were responding to their struggles in increasingly political ways, inspired in part by momentous developments both within South Africa and without. The South African Students’ Movement began holding meetings, talks and discussions in the early 1970s. The pupils first affected by the imposition of Afrikaans, led by Phefeni Junior Secondary School, began classroom go-slows and school boycotts in the months leading up to 16 June – struggles explored by historian and former Phefeni student Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu in his book The Soweto Uprisings: Counter Memories of June 1976 (1998). While the police attempted to curb this burgeoning militancy, the Department of Bantu Education remained intransigent, apparently undaunted. ‘No I have not consulted the African people on the language issue,’ said one minister, ‘and I’m not going to’ (Nieftagodien 2014: 62). On  June 13 a mass meeting attended by students from across Soweto was held. June 16 was chosen as the day of action.

——–

A moment’s pause followed the first shootings. Even the older students, who knew something of the repressive impulses of the apartheid state, had not anticipated the use of live rounds on children. There was little opportunity, however, to dwell on the shock. Amidst the horror and confusion, the chaos and fear, there was a deep fury at the extraordinary brutality of the police. One former student remembers:

[The police] started shooting and we were unarmed. We were just students, what we had [were] only pens. So we retaliated and we ended up throwing stones back to them… Quoted in Elsabé Brink et al., Soweto, 16 June 1976: Personal Accounts of the Uprising (Cape Town: Kwela Books, 2001, 69.)

Open confrontation ensued. ‘Hippos’ (armoured cars) carrying armed officers flooded in as helicopters showered tear gas over the entire township. Soweto’s children improvised: throwing rocks, using dustbin lids as shields, ducking in and out of houses. They aimed their rage at government buildings and vehicles – anything associated with ‘the system’ became a target. By the afternoon, Soweto was engulfed in smoke and turmoil, and by nightfall, the police still had not regained control. In many ways, they never would again.

——-

Within days, young people in other townships were demonstrating in solidarity. Moved by the same youthful and unjaded outrage as their Sowetan peers, defiance in the face of state violence became characteristic of the revolt as it spread throughout South Africa. Demands quickly broadened to include calls to end not only Bantu Education, but apartheid itself. Activism took many forms, students countrywide organised campaigns, boycotts and stay-at-homes in their communities with varying degrees of success and co-ordination. Funerals for young people killed by police, transformed into mass political gatherings, became a mainstay of township life. By late 1977, the uprising had been quelled by the repressive violence of the state: in excess of 1,000 people were dead, and huge numbers of student activists were detained, imprisoned or driven into exile. But the forces unleashed in the uprising could not be extinguished. It had been the most significant challenge to the apartheid state in over a decade. For the first time in a long time, the uprising of youth made the end of apartheid seem possible.

In 2016, South Africa marked the 40 th anniversary of the beginning of the uprising. The year before had seen the eruption of new student protest: #RhodesMustFall in March, and #FeesMustFall in October. These movements, led by South Africa’s ‘born free’ generation, were a challenge to the complacent pace of post-apartheid ‘transformation’ in education and beyond. Activists called for decolonisation in ways that continue to reverberate around the world. Their protests explicitly referenced, both discursively and tactically, the struggles of 1976. It was a moment of dissonance: the uprising was a historical event associated with the end of apartheid, why were ‘born free’ students raising its spectre? Whereas 1976 should have distant, it was instead immediate.

The 1976 uprising has always been contested. In the immediate aftermath, various liberation movements jostled for ownership over the student movement, claiming influence. As the African National Congress (ANC) emerged as the dominant internal opposition movement in the country, it increasingly absorbed the uprising into its official lore. This left little room for students as historical actors in their own right, flattening them as ‘heroes’ and ‘martyrs’ in an ANC-led liberation struggle (Pohlandt-McCormick, 2005). Even here, the meaning, styles of commemoration and political deployment of the 1976 uprising changed as the ANC’s emphasis switched from resisting apartheid to building a post-apartheid nation (Ndlovu 1998: 50-54).

Likewise, the historiography of the uprising itself is not static. Scholars responding to the events of 1976 and 1977 produced critical work that also reflected the urgency of the historical moment: paths forward were offered, along with detailed accounts of the uprising which countered the apartheid state’s official report into ‘disturbances.’ Student voices were largely absent (Nieftagodien 2014: 20-25). After the fall of apartheid, important interventions allowed a more nuanced understanding of the uprising based on testimony. Hear Gandhi Malungane, one of the authors behind ‘ Soweto: 16 June 1976: Personal Accounts of the Uprising ’:

I felt that there might be many people like myself who witnessed, experienced and participated in the uprising, but who experienced it differently to those who are mentioned in the many books about June 1976.      Elsabé Brink et al., Soweto, 16 June 1976: Personal Accounts of the Uprising (Cape Town: Kwela Books, 2001, 202.)

Similarly, in the introduction to Counter Memories Sifiso Ndlovu, also a participant in the uprising, wrote of his desire to uncover ‘the memories and intimate, personal stories behind the official versions of history’ (Ndlovu 1998). Students emerged here not as pawns of history, but as fully realised historical actors. These studies in ‘counter-memory’ showed students acting in diverse, creative and human ways before and during the uprising and often reflecting ambivalently on its impact in their lives. Students Must Rise , a collection published in 2016, partly in response to contemporary student activism, situated events in Soweto in a broader historical continuum and drew out important considerations and distinctions: of gender, class, region and generation (Heffernan et al. eds 2017). South Africans, and historians of South Africa, continue to grapple with the content and legacy of the uprising that began 45 years ago, on 16 June 1976.  

The author would like to thank Wayne Dooling for his comments on an earlier version of this piece.

Bibliography and selected further reading

Bonner, Philip, and Lauren Segal 1998. Soweto: A History . Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman. Brink, Elsabé, Gandhi Malungane, Steve Lebelo, Dumisani Ntshangase, and Sue Krige 2001. Soweto, 16 June 1976: Personal Accounts of the Uprising . Cape Town: Kwela Books. Brown, Julian 2016. The Road to Soweto: Resistance and the Uprising of 16 June 1976. Johannesburg: Jacana Media. Heffernan, Anne, and Noor Nieftagodien, eds 2017. Students Must Rise: Youth Struggle in South Africa Before and Beyond ’76. Johannesburg: Wits University Press. Hirson, Baruch 1979. Year of Fire, Year of Ash . London: Zed Press. Hyslop, Jonathan 1999. The Classroom Struggle: Policy and Resistance in South Africa 1940-1990 . Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press. Lodge, Tom 2019. ‘Resistance and Reform, 1973–1994.’ In The Cambridge History of South Africa, Volume 2: 1885-1994 , edited by Robert Ross, Anne Kelk Mager, Bill Nasson, 409-491. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lodge, Tom 1984. Black Politics in South Africa since 1945 . London: Longman. Marx, Anthony 1992. Lessons of Struggle: South African Internal Opposition, 1960-1990 . Oxford: Oxford University Press. Mashabela, Harry 2006. A People on the Boil: Reflections on June 16 1976 and Beyond . Johannesburg: Jacana Media. Ndlovu, Sifiso Mxolisi 1998. The Soweto Uprisings: Counter-memories of June 1976 . Randburg: Ravan Press. Nieftagodien, Noor 2014. The Soweto Uprising . Johannesburg: Jacana Media. Pohlandt-McCormick, Helena 2005. “I Saw a Nightmare…” Doing Violence to Memory: the Soweto Uprising of 1976 . New York: Columbia University Press/Gutenberg-e http://www.gutenberg-e.org/pohlandt-mccormick/index.html

Lucy Kernick

Lucy Kernick is studying towards an MA in History. She is interested in South African history, particularly social history and the history of gender.

SOAS History Blog, Department of History, Religions and Philosophy, SOAS University of London

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Youth and the politics of generational memories: The Soweto uprising in South Africa

2020, Ateliers d'anthropologie

Related Papers

Research in African Literature

Loren Kruger

In contrast to the outpouring in 2006 of visual and verbal narratives, publications on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary in 2016 have been less spectacular, and only one, Students Must Rise, forges connections between the student uprisings of 1976 and the current situation, in which the tiny minority able to reach university has been protesting rising fees and other problems while the majority of youth facing structural unemployment struggle to find any future. This review essay analyzes the 40th anniversary of the Soweto uprising

Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology

Molemo Moiloa

Erik S . J . H . Vermeulen

This dissertation focuses on work written by black authors in South Africa in the late seventies and early eighties as a reaction to the Soweto riots in 1976. It tries to assess to what extent these writers have succeeded in investing township violence with meaning in the larger context of the freedom struggle of the oppressed in SA. On the black campuses in 1972, there was growing unrest and the newly founded South African Student Organisation, S.A.S.O., gave expression to the principle of “black power”, inspired by similar movements in the U.S.A. Very soon leaders in South Africa received banning orders. Black Consciousness as conceived by student leaders, notably Steve Biko, was not, in the first place, a political movement with a clear set of principles or an ideology with guidelines how to overthrow the white government and establish a South Africa run by blacks. It was closer to a philosophy that had as its objective the rehabilitation of the pride and self-confidence of the oppressed in SA to such an extent that they would be provoked to demand what was rightfully theirs. In 1976, secondary school students in Soweto started protesting against Bantu Education, because of its curriculum that prepared students for a menial place in Society. They were also enraged because of the introduction of Afrikaans as an obligatory medium of education. The protest marches sparked off the killing of a number of students by the police when they were trying to disperse them in Soweto on 16 June 1976. The Student Representative Council or S.R.C., operating under the banner of Black Consciousness, successfully orchestrated a number of campaigns to put pressure on the government, such as massive strikes, boycotts of white-owned shops and attacks on bottle stores and shebeens in an attempt to curb liquor abuse. Later these protests evolved into riots and although many hooligans took advantage of the unrest, the student leaders generally managed to keep their regular members well organized. The riots and general unrest mark a turning point in SA’s history: violence and unrest spread all over the country and has affected SA until this day, where governance and management have become more and more dominated by the indigenous black population. After the Soweto riots in 1976, police forces started arresting great numbers of students followed by systematic torturing in prisons leading to the death of many of them. Most leaders fled SA for fear of being detained or killed by the police and became members of Umkonto we Sizwe (Zulu for "Spear of the Nation"), which was the armed wing of the African National Congress, operating from African neighbouring countries, Europe or the US. Much of this new wave of black emancipation found expression in poetry, short stories, novels and drama and led to the generation of self-help programmes among black communities to break the white privileges. The urban intellectual founders felt the need for closer ties with “the ordinary black people”. This dissertation hypothesises that much of the traditional war and honour ethos that existed in African communities before white oppression still played an important role in the minds of many freedom activists. In order to comprehend this ethos, I investigated the educational process and particularly the initiation rites of youngsters in traditional communities. I examined studies of the rites by South African sociologists and psychologists of various origins and racial backgrounds, and analysed and compared them with each other, since one generally considers these rites the climax of an education geared to inculcating in young minds the clan-ideology. The first part of the thesis defends the hypothesis that it is possible to interpret much of black fiction dealing with the 1976 student uprising in Soweto as allegorical enactments of the ritual passage of youngsters into adulthood. The ancient rituals, as practised in special initiation camps in pre-industrialised communities, exposed the initiates to a series of ordeals after which they reintegrated into their communities as “purified” and responsible adults. The second part of this dissertation explains how the hypothesis that the ancient initiation and community purification ethos is the key to a “correct” interpretation of the novels breaks down when comparing the final chapters to the opening ones. Although it would appear that many black writers considered the ancient collectivist ethos a sine qua non for the success of the socialist revolution in a capitalist society, this interpretation becomes increasingly ambiguous towards the ends of the novels. The clash between the rebel socialist propaganda and the tendency of the protagonists to become increasingly withdrawn into privacy and isolated suffering remains unresolved until the end. This ambiguity reflects the reality of a changing South African society and the clash between the traditional collectivist ethos in male dominated communities and a society geared to increased individualism due to industrialization, economic progress, consumerism, urbanization and the shift to more balanced gender relationships. For this reason, a considerable part of this thesis deals with cultural, historical and socio-political matters in order to facilitate proper assessment of the literature of these committed writers, who appear to have been more interested in getting their (political) messages across than producing literary works of art for art’s sake.

Leslie Hadfield

PhD Thesis in full

Peter Dwyer

This thesis is about understanding social change and the role of, and influence upon, agency in ‘making history’. In which an overview of the contemporary South African liberation struggle, and the first term of the African National Congress (ANC) government between 1994 and 1999, is juxtaposed with primary life history data of a group of former Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) activists, elected to government in 1994. It examines and analyses what their political participation means in practice and how this affects them and the inter-dependent interaction between individuals and the organisations of which they are members. The comprehension of these relationships, the basic ingredients of which are structural explanation and intentional understanding are situated in the debates around structure and agency and their inter-relationship. Drawing on ‘Marxist’ epistemology it shows how notions of class, conflict, exploitation etc facilitates an understanding of these relationships and the concomitant social relations. As agency and political ideas are an irreducible element of social change, these concepts, taken together with an historical outline of the ANC and the political beliefs that inform activists, aid our understanding of how structure and agency interacts and relates to activists experiences. Drawing on primary interviews, it also compares their experiences with that of more critical and contemporary COSATU activists, to establish if and how they differ and if the activists, turned politicians, have changed their views and ideas from those they were associated with before they went into government. In the process, it shows how these activists have come a long way in terms of what they have experienced and their political and ideological development – that in ‘making history’ they have changed in the process. It shows how they became organised and ideologically committed activists shaped to varying degrees by the mix of nationalist and socialist ideas and rhetoric, reflecting the politics of the ANC leadership and the constituent parts of its multi-class organisation, and how this continues to influence their political development.

Ali Hlongwane

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE WITS SCHOOL OF THE ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND, 2015

Alex Vailati

The social role of youth, in the last twenty years, has become a key point of the political agenda of many African nations. In South Africa, the consequences of segregationist politics, market economy and migrations have profoundly shaped the social and cultural role of youth, both in urban and rural contexts. Moreover, the end of apartheid has opened a new period of wide transformation. Based on my ethnographic research in KwaMashabane, a rural region of South Africa, this article analyses how the social role of male youth is shaped by national state policy and by local dynamics. I will focus on the relationship between models of adulthood, and the strategies that youth adopt to cope with confl icts and continuities. This analysis will show how post-apartheid freedom and the constraints of the local social structure are negotiated, and how society is coping with the complex relationships between cultural reproduction and social change.

New Contree

Pieter Heydenrych

Witney Schneidman

Hans Erik Stolten

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