JUNE 16, YOUTH DAY EDUCATON: YOUTH POWER: PUBLIC PROGRAMMES GROWING SOUTH AFRICA TOGETHER IN THE PERIOD YOUTH DAY – JUNE 2020 OF COVID19 #COVID-19 #BlackLivesMatter #YouthPower YOUTH POWER Each year on June 16th - South Africans commemorate the 1976 youth uprisings, paying tribute to the learners and young people who stood up against the apartheid government. Youth Day serves as a reminder that young South Africans were at the forefront of the struggle for liberation; and 2020 marks 30 years since this tragic incident. Today’s youth face much more complex challenges of unemployment, poverty, inequality, crime and, most recently, the various impacts of COVID-19; and across East and Southern Africa, countries are implementing stay-at- home protocols and restrictions in movement to varying degrees. In South Africa, learning institutions, sports facilities, places of worship, shopping malls and most public venues have Source: https://mpumalanganews.co.za/ closed. For young South Africans, this means their traditional 311578/reliving-student-uprisings-41- years/ social spaces and interactions have essentially shrunk to their homes. 16 JUNE 1976 In the 1970s, the rise of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) and the formation of South African Students Organization (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. 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. Images of the police firing at peacefully demonstrating students led to an international revulsion against South Africa as its system of brutality was exposed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaT_LZkg29E STREETS OF SOWETO: JUNE 1976 Sources: South African History Online, Madeinmusina HASTINGS NDLOVU Hastings Ndlovu Hastings Ndlovu was a fifteen-year-old boy at the time of the Soweto Youth Uprising in 1976. He is widely believed to be the first boy who was shot dead by police on that day, sustaining an injury to his head from which he later died in hospital. The coloured doctor at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital who received Ndlovu, Malcolm Klein, described what he saw that afternoon in grim detail: “a bullet wound to one side of his head, blood and brains spilling out of a large exit wound on the other side, the gurgle of death in his throat." HECTOR PIETERSON Antoinette Sithole- “When the shooting began, I went into hiding. When the shooting stopped, I came out of hiding when others came out. I saw [my brother] Hector [Pieterson] across the street, and I called him and waved at him. He came over and I spoke to him, but more shots rang out and I went into hiding again. I thought he followed me, but he did not come. I came out again and waited at the spot where I just saw him. He did not come. When Mbuyiso came past me a group of children were gathering nearby. He walked towards the group and picked up a body ... And then I saw Hector’s shoes” Hector Pieterson, carried by Mbuyiselo Makubo with Antoinette Sithole. Photo taken by Sam Nzima Open this hyperlink to learn about the Soweto Uprising and the story behi nd Sam Nzima's photograph https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOU15CQL2Mc&feature=youtu.be THE BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS MOVEMENT Brian Mphalele- “On 9 March 1973, at the age of 18, I met Steve Biko on my street. Led by Biko, students from the South African Student’s Organisation (SASO) and the Black People’s Convention (BPC) were travelling, province to province, to conscientise the youth. Our protests in 1976 were against the inferiority of Bantu education and Afrikaans being taught in our schools.” From an interview by Iziko Researcher, Lynn Abrahams, 2019. Photo of Steve Biko THE ROLE OF YOUTH IN SOUTH AFRICA It is worth noting that this year, 2020, coincides with the 30th anniversary since the release of Nelson Mandela from prison: “We owe it to the youth who perished in struggle on June 16 and in the many years that followed, to ensure that we achieve what we have set for ourselves; to build a better life for all South Africans. On that fateful day 20 years ago, you jolted the nation from its slumber, and rejected the slave education that the Portrait of Nelson Mandela apartheid regime had implemented, with the hope of making Blacks accept their slavery. You changed the course of history, and accelerated the downfall of the apartheid system.” FEES MUST FALL The Fees Must Fall movement has become the biggest student protest movement in democratic South Africa. The protest has drawn comparisons with the 1976 youth uprisings in Soweto against the apartheid education system. Black youths fought against policies that would force them to learn in Afrikaans, and more than a 100 people were killed by police. From its inception, the Fallist movement sought to raise very important and pertinent questions about structural, institutionalized racism and as well as the Eurocentric nature of the curricular at South Africa’s institutions of higher learning. Photographs: Imraan Christian YOUTH DAY 2020 “The struggle of 1976 Soweto uprising comes as an inspiration to us young people for it helps us develop our outlook, courage to emancipate ourselves, stand up for our rights and undertake confront the challenges that face us with today” Philiswa Kwaphuna “For me also, the #FeesMustFall campaign in which I took part in during my student days, is in fact a reminder that June 16 is indeed a continuing struggle. The youth of 1976 fought for a better education and to be taught in the language of their choice. The youth of 2016 #FeesMustFall campaign fought for no fee tertiary education” Athi Yonela Dzingwe “The struggle facing South African youth today remains troubling and this is due to rapid increase in crime, use of substance abuse, high unemployment, poverty, and unequal education opportunities” Odumo Christopher Nkonongi VISIT THE IZIKO SLAVE LODGE Aluta Continua - on exhibition at the Iziko Slave Lodge - highlights the Western Cape chapter of the 1976 student uprisings. The brutal 16 June, 1976 killings immediately sparked solidarity across the country, signaling a shift in resistance politics that would begin to mark the end of apartheid. After the killing of school learners from Langa, Nyanga and Gugulethu on 11 August 1976, liberation and resistance narratives, specifically in the Western Cape, took a turning point - becoming a catalyst for widespread, organised resistance campaigns. Photograph: Nigel Pamplin BIBLIOGRAPHY https://africantravelcanvas.com/category/experiences/history-and-politics/ https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/june-16-soweto-youth-uprising Source: https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/june-16-1976-uprising-a-timeline-9822355 https://mpumalanganews.co.za/311578/reliving-student-uprisings-41-years/ https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/lesley-hastings-ndlovu http://www.theheritageportal.co.za/article/hastings-ndlovus-day-too https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/16/my-activism-started-then-the-soweto- uprising-remembered https://www.capetalk.co.za/articles/3249/youth-day-understanding-the-history-behind-it https://sowetourban.co.za/59978/paying-homage-stalwart-supporter-freedom-tsietsimashinini/ https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/bikos-imprisonment-death-and-aftermath http://db.nelsonmandela.org/speeches/pub_view.asp?pg=item&ItemID=NMS382 https://www.enca.com/south-africa/fee-must-fall-protest-reminiscent-1967-uprising https://esaro.unfpa.org/en/news/engaging-africas-youth-fight-against-covid-19 Government work. South African Police photographs. South African History Online, Madeinmusina.