On June 16, 1976, in Soweto, a township of Johannesburg, thousands of Black high school students took to the streets to protest the imposition of Afrikaans as the compulsory language of instruction for the so-called Bantu population. The police opened fire. Twelve-year-old Hector Pieterson collapsed under the bullets. His death, immortalized by an iconic photograph, marked the beginning of a revolt that would shake the apartheid regime.
South Africa in the 1970s was a laboratory of systemic oppression. Since 1948, the National Party (Afrikaner nationalism) had institutionalized racial segregation under the name of Apartheid (literally, " separation "), which was officially a policy of separate development between autonomous racial communities. Black people , who represented 70% of the population, were deprived of political rights, assigned to designated areas, and outside these areas confined to overcrowded townships , and subjected to a pass system that restricted their movement.
The economy, meanwhile, is racialized: whites control the land, factories, banks, and especially the gold and diamond mines [1]. Black people are relegated to the most arduous and underpaid jobs. In Soweto, unemployment affects 40% of the population, and the average wages of Black people are 10 times lower than those of whites ! The apartheid system is in fact the systematization of a racist political and economic system put in place for the benefit of Afrikaner miners and, more generally, " poor whites " from the early decades of the twentieth century in the Johannesburg region, notably with the Colour Bar Act , which established a quota of jobs reserved (and better paid) for whites only - particularly in the mines.
The apartheid regime was established through a series of laws enacted starting in 1948, which progressively deprived Black people of all political and social rights. While opposition began to organize during the 1950s, notably around the ANC (African National Congress), the arrests and imprisonment of its main leaders, followed by its banning in 1960, which forced its activists underground, ultimately crushed organized opposition to the nationalist regime. The 1970s marked the height of the apartheid system; the regime was economically and militarily strong despite a tarnished international image. The events of June 1976 profoundly undermined the foundations of apartheid.
The school as an instrument of political subjugation
In 1953, the South African government adopted the Bantu Education Act (the term "Bantu" referred to Black people) with the aim of creating a docile workforce suited to the needs of white capitalism. The Minister of Education (and future Prime Minister) Hendrik Verwoerd stated bluntly: " There is no place for[Black people]in European society beyond certain forms of work. For them, education must therefore be adapted to this reality . " [2]School curricula for Black people emphasized obedience and submission to authority, religion , and manual labor. The systemic disengagement of the state from the education of Black people was glaring. The funding gap between schooling for so- called " Bantu " students and white students was 1 to 15 in 1975. [3]Between 1962 and 1971, no secondary schools were built in Soweto, and class sizes exploded, sometimes reaching 100 students ! [4]The timid beginnings of catching up during the first years of the 1970s, if schools were built in Soweto, they were still insufficient in number, did not signal the beginning of a relaxation of the policy of racial school segregation, quite the contrary.
Group of middle and high school students protesting against the imposition of Afrikaans as the main school language on June 16, 1976 in Soweto.
Credits: Peter Magubane
The Afrikaner government sought to impose Afrikaans, the language of the Boer settlers, as the official language, to the detriment of English and African languages, particularly Zulu and Xhosa. This idea was developed as early as 1968 within the Department of Bantu Education , the agency responsible for the education of Black people. Arguments for imposing Afrikaans included the fact that Black workers had much more contact with Afrikaners, that Afrikaans was easier to learn than English, and that " the police, with whom the Bantu population has a great deal of contact, speak predominantly Afrikaans " [5]. In 1974, a directive mandated that 50% of courses (mathematics, science, and history) be taught in Afrikaans, the language of the Boer settlers. For both Black students and teachers, who predominantly speak Zulu, Xhosa, or English, it's a double burden: not only must they learn or teach in a language they don't master, but this language is also that of their oppressors. It's the spark that ignites the powder keg.
High school students are self-organizing
As early as 1972, school boycotts were organized sporadically in Soweto. In 1975, students staged hunger strikes to protest the degrading and oppressive learning conditions imposed on Black students. In 1976, the Soweto Students' Representative Council (SSRC) was formed to coordinate resistance against the policy of imposing Afrikaans. Its 19-year-old president, Tsietsi Mashinini, became a central figure. In late April 1976, students at a school in Orlando West, a district of Soweto, went on strike. The movement gradually spread to other schools. Their demand: equal treatment for Black and white students. On June 13, during a secret meeting of an ad-hoc action committee at Naledi High School, the students decided to organize a peaceful demonstration three days later in front of the Department of Education in Orlando West. Their slogan: " If we must do Afrikaans, Vorster must do Zulu "a way of saying that if they must learn the language of the oppressor, then Prime Minister John Vorster must learn the language of the oppressed!
On the morning of June 16, ten to twenty thousand high school students donned their school uniforms and gathered in front of their schools. They sang the ANC anthem, Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika , which was banned at the time, and held up signs such as " Down with Afrikaans " or " Viva Azania " [6]; showing both their involvement in the struggles of their elders in the ANC and their affinity with the ideas developed by Pan-Africanists, but also with the Black Consciousness Movement of Steve Biko, which emerged in the late 1960s in universities, and which rejected alliances with white liberals and advocated the liberation of Black people by themselves.
A march suppressed in blood
The march began peacefully, but the police, in riot gear and heavily armed, quickly blocked the road. The students refused to disperse. Around 10:30 a.m., a police officer threw the first tear gas grenade. The crowd panicked, and the first shots rang out. Twelve-year-old Hector Pieterson was fatally shot in the chest in front of the gates of Orlando West High School. He died in the arms of his classmate, 18-year-old Mbuyisa Makhubo, while his sister, Antoinette Sithole, ran to their side. Sam Nzima's iconic photograph, which captured this scene, would travel the world and become a symbol of the struggle against apartheid.
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Hector Pieterson is carried by Mbuyisa Makhubo after being fatally wounded by a shot fired by South African police. His sister, Antoinette Sithole, is with them. Rushed to a local clinic, Hector is pronounced dead on arrival. This photograph by Sam Nzima, which became iconic of the Soweto uprising and the violent repression by the South African government, played a significant role in raising awareness and mobilizing anti-apartheid movements internationally.
Credits: DR
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News of Hector's death spread like wildfire through the township. Soweto erupted in flames. Students overturned police cars, erected barricades, and threw stones. The police responded by firing live ammunition at children. The township was sealed off by the police, and white journalists were barred from entering Soweto. Orders were given to the paramilitary police units that had arrived during the day to restore order " at any cost " [7]. Hospital emergency rooms were flooded with the wounded , and many doctors refused to obey police orders and did not hand over the names of those they treated. By the end of the day on June 16, the official death toll was 23 (21 of whom were Black ) , and hundreds were wounded; other sources spoke of dozens.
On the evening of June 16, a meeting was organized by the Soweto Parents' Association, attended by Winnie Mandela, to discuss the day's tragic events. The following day, the uprising spread, with workers joining the students, and factories were set ablaze. The government declared a state of emergency, and the army was deployed. In one week, 176 people were killed. Within a year, the death toll would reach 1,000.
The memory of that day, June 16th, is still very much alive in the memories and on the walls of Soweto.
Credits: DR
While the uprisings in Soweto itself lasted only a few days, other townships erupted in turn, and demonstrations also took place in predominantly white cities. In Johannesburg, several hundred white students marched to protest the repression of Black schoolchildren. The government, for its part, refused to back down and accused Pan-Africanist movements of being behind the protesters.
Solidarity is becoming international
Images of the massacre perpetrated by police against middle and high school students in Soweto sent shockwaves through the country. The UN condemned the South African government (Resolution 392 of June 19, 1976). Demonstrations of support took place in London, New York, and Moscow. Boycotts were launched against companies that supported apartheid (such as Barclays Bank). For the first time since its establishment as official policy in 1948, apartheid was isolated on the international stage. The events of June 1976 marked the beginning of a new period of intense revolts against the apartheid regime of racial capitalism: even though they continued to be violently repressed, mobilizations by Black youth and trade union organizations multiplied . [8]
On the spot where Hector was mortally wounded, there is now a memorial and a Hector Pieterson museum.
Credits: DR
The memory of June 1976 in Soweto remains vivid even today. But Soweto 76 is not just a tragic event; it is also a moment of radical rupture, where a generation rejected oppression and urgently invented autonomous, horizontal, and radical forms of struggle, where traditional forms of political organization had failed to politicize this youth [9] [10]. In a system where the South African state used schools as a tool of social and racial domination, the high school students of Soweto transformed classrooms into ideological battlegrounds. Their revolt was not only against a language, but against an entire system: apartheid, of course, but also against everything that makes it possiblecapitalism, colonialism, and the very idea that it is legitimate in the eyes of some to dominate others.
David (AL's friend)
CHRONOLOGY
In 1974, Circular 39/1974 imposed Afrikaans as the language of instruction for 50% of subjects (mathematics, science, history, geography) from the 5th year of schooling in so-called Bantu (black) schools.
In January 1976, the decree came into effect in some Soweto schools. Student councils organized clandestine meetings. The Soweto Students' Representative Council (SSRC) was created to coordinate resistance against the policy of imposing Afrikaans.
April 1976: First strike in a school in Orlando-West, Soweto. Other schools will go on strike in the following weeks.
On June 13, 1976, gathered in assembly at Morris Isaacson High School, the students decided on a peaceful demonstration for June 16, in front of the Department of Education offices in Orlando West.
June 16, 1976 , 7:00 a.m., gathering of 5,000 to 10,000 middle and high school students in front of their schools.
8:00 am departure of the march towards Orlando stadium. The students sing Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika (banned anthem of the ANC).
At 9:30 a.m., police in riot gear blocked the march near Orlando West Junior Secondary School. The students refused to disperse.
At 10:00 AM, police launched tear gas grenades, then opened fire on the crowd. Hector Pieterson, 12 years old, was hit in the chest. He died in the arms of his friend, Mbuyisa Makhubo, 18 years old.
Between 10:30 and 12:00, news of Hector's death spreads. Students overturn police cars and erect barricades using trash cans and burning tires. Molotov cocktails are thrown. The police respond with live ammunition, firing at the teenagers .
At 12:00 , workers joined the students. Factories (Ford, General Motors) were set on fire.
At 2:00 PM, the government declared a state of emergency. The army was deployed to Soweto.
6:00 PM, first provisional toll of the day: 23 dead (including 21 Black people , 2 White people), hundreds injured . Hospitals are overwhelmed. Mass arrests begin.
That evening, the police conducted raids in Soweto. Hundreds of students were arrested. Student leaders ( like Tsietsi Mashinini) were hunted down .
Riots break out in other townships overnight (Alexandra, Sharpeville...). The government censors the media and bans all gatherings.
June 17, 1976: General strike of students and teachers in Soweto schools. 80% of high school students boycotted classes !
June 18-20 the repression is bloody, the army and the police shoot on sight at the demonstrators .
On June 22, 1976, the government closed the schools in Soweto and banned all gatherings. By the end of June, the official death toll was 176 (including 134 students), with over 1,000 injured and 5,000 arrested. The uprising spread throughout the country.
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[1] Martin Meredith, Diamonds, Gold and War: The Making of South Africa , Simon & Schuster, 2007.
[2] " There is no place for [the Bantu]in the European community above the level of certain forms of labour... "
[3] " For every R644 the government spent on a white student, R42 was spent on an African student.», Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu, The Soweto Uprisings. Counter-Memories of June 1976, Picador Africa, 2017, p. 12.
[4] Ibid, p. 10.
[5] Ibid, p. 15.
[6] BBC On This Day, " 1976: Soweto protest turns violent ", Bbc.co.uk. Azanie is what South African pan-Africanists have been calling South Africa since the 1960s.
[7] " From the official records, the paramilitary police who had arrived in Soweto during the day were given orders to shoot to kill ; laws and order was to be maintained " at any cost " , " Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu, op. cit ., p. 54.
[8] During this same period, the Black trade union movement restructured and strengthened itself, quadrupling its membership between the late 1970s and early 1980s. The number of strikes also increased, with significant victories. For Craig Charney, " the resurgence of Black trade unions opened a new front in the struggle against apartheid. The unions, both economic pressure forces and mass political organizations, contributed to challenging two of the foundations of the apartheid system of racial capitalism: the cheap labor economy and the demobilization of the Black working masses. " See Craig Charney, " The Black Trade Union Revival in South Africa, 1973-1983 ," Politique africaine, 1984, pp. 97-113.
[9] Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu, author of *The Soweto Uprisings* and a high school student who participated in the movement, discusses the rapid and autonomous political development of high school students directly impacted by the reform, in contrast to university students, where Biko's Black Consciousness Movement was more established, but who were not involved in the school boycott movement from the outset. See Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu, op. cit. , p. 77.
[10] AZAPO (a movement created in 1978 and close to Steve Biko's Black Consciousness movement) and the ANC will engage in a real battle of memory around the events of June 1976 in Soweto, each movement trying to recover the paternity of a movement essentially built outside of political parties and organizations.
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Il-y-a-cinquante-ans-Soweto-1976-le-debut-de-la-fin-de-l-apartheid
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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