Soweto riots
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The Soweto Riots or Soweto Uprising were a series of riots in Soweto, South Africa in June 1976 between black youths and the South African authorities. The riots grew out of protests against the policies of the National Party government and its apartheid regime.
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[edit] Causes of the protests
Black students in Soweto protested against the Afrikaans Medium Decree of 1974 which forced all black students to learn the Afrikaans language and to be taught secondary school mathematics, social sciences, geography and history in the language.
Punt Janson, the Deputy Minister of Bantu Education at the time, was quoted as saying: "I have not consulted the African people on the language issue and I'm not going to. An African might find that 'the big boss' only spoke Afrikaans or only spoke English. It would be to his advantage to know both languages."'
The decree was resented deeply by blacks as Afrikaans was widely viewed, in the words of Desmond Tutu, then Dean of Johannesburg as "the language of the oppressor". The resentment grew until April 30, 1976, when children at Orlando West Junior School in Soweto went on strike, refusing to go to school. Their rebellion then spread to many other schools in Soweto. The students organised a mass rally for June 16, 1976 to hopefully make themselves heard by the Bantu Education System.
In a BBC/SABC documentary broadcast for the first time in June 2006, surviving leaders of the uprising described how they planned in secret for the demonstration, surprising their teachers and families (and the apartheid police) with the power and strength of the demonstration.
[edit] The uprising
On the morning of June 16, 1976, thousands of black students met for a rally to protest more effectively against having to learn Afrikaans in school. Many students who later participated in the protest arrived at school that morning without prior knowledge of the protest; they found out about the march that morning, but most agreed to become involved. The protest was intended to be peaceful and had been carefully planned by the Soweto Students’ Representative Council’s (SSRC) Action Committee, with support from the wider Black Consciousness Movement. Teachers in Soweto also supported the march after the Action Committee emphasised good discipline and peaceful action.
The students began the march only to find out that police had barricaded the road along their intended route. The leader of the action committee asked the crowd not to provoke the police and the march continued on another route, eventually ending up near Orlando High School. The crowd of between 3,000 and 10,000 students made their way towards the area of the school; at the same time police called for reinforcements of officers.
There are various accounts of what started the massacre which followed. The police had weapons and tear gas while the students were unarmed. Some reports later claimed that the school children were throwing stones, while others claim the protests were peaceful with no violent actions from the children at all.
The police threw canisters of tear gas to disperse the students, who then began throwing stones in retaliation. The gas forced the crowd to draw back a little, but they continued singing and waving placards with slogans including: "Down with Afrikaans", "Viva Azania" and "If we must do Afrikaans, Vorster must do Zulu". A white male police officer drew his handgun and fired a shot, causing panic and chaos. Students started screaming and running and more gunshots were fired. At least four children were shot, the first being Hastings Ndlovu followed by 13-year-old Hector Pieterson. The photograph taken of his body became a symbol of police brutality (see right). The rioting continued and 23 people, including three whites, died on the first day in Soweto. Among them was Dr Melville Edelstein who had devoted his life to social welfare among blacks. He was stoned to death by the mob and left with a sign around his neck proclaiming 'Beware Afrikaners'.
The violence escalated as the students panicked, bottle stores and beerhalls were targeted as many believed that alcohol was used by the government to control black people.
Emergency clinics were swamped with injured and bloody children as ambulances came to and fro. Almost all of the children who were brought in had sustained bullet wounds. The violence had however abated with nightfall. Police vans and armoured vehicles patrolled the streets throughout the night.
Emotions ran high after the massacre on June 16. Hostility between students and the police was intense, with officers shooting at random and more people joining the protesters. The township youth had been frustrated and angry for a long time and the riots became the opportunity to bring to light their grievances.
The 1,500 heavily armed police officers deployed to Soweto on June 17 carried high-powered weapons, including automatic rifles, stun guns and carbines. They drove around in armoured vehicles with helicopters monitoring the area from the sky. The South African Army was also order on standby as a tactical measure to show military force. Basic crowd control methods were not a part of South African police training at the time, and many of the officers shot indiscriminately, murdering many people. This only intensified the students' anger.
[edit] Political context
The repression of the African National Congress and its allies in the 1960s following the Rivonia Trial and the unsuccessful intervention in Zimbabwe's liberation war led to a brief period of relative internal peace in South Africa, but by the mid 1970s the victories of the MPLA and Frelimo in Angola and Mozambique showed that white colonialists could be beaten by military force and at the same time a new Black Consciousness Movement was giving new confidence to young blacks. In this context the Afrikaans issue was, in the view of many participants in the uprising, merely the spark that set the tinder alight - young blacks were looking for the issue over which to confront the apartheid state.
After the uprising the African National Congress which had been rebuilding its underground organisation in the country was quick to offer the young militants an opportunity to receive military training and the ANC also rapidly sought to provide a political focus to the rioting by distributing leaflets calling for the death of the National Party's Prime Minister and the freedom of Nelson Mandela. By November 1976 Murphy Morobe, one of the original leaders of the student revolt was back in Soweto, having received military training, attempting to build a cell of Umkhonto we Sizwe the ANC's military wing.
[edit] Aftermath
The aftermath of the uprising established the leading role of the ANC in the liberation struggle, as it was the body best able to channel and organize students seeking revenge and the overthrow of apartheid. So, although the BCM's ideas had been important in creating the climate that gave the students the confidence to strike out, it was the ANC's non-racialism which came to dominate the discourse of liberation amongst blacks.
For the state the uprising marked the most fundamental challenge yet to apartheid and the economic (see below) and political instability it caused was heightened by the strengthening international boycott. It was a further 14 years before Mandela was released, but at no point was the state able to restore the relative peace and social stability of the early 1970s as black resistance grew.
Many white South African citizens were outraged at the government's actions in Soweto, and about 300 white students from the University of the Witwatersrand marched through Johannesburg's city centre in protest of the killing of children. Black workers went on strike as well and joined them as the campaign progressed. There was a huge threat of the riots spreading beyond Soweto.
Student organisations directed the energy and anger of the youth toward political resistance. Students in Thembisa organised a successful and non-violent solidarity march, but a similar protest held in Kagiso led to police stopping a group of participants and forcing them to retreat, before killing at least five people while waiting for reinforcements. The violence only died down on June 18.
The continued clashes in Soweto caused economic instability. The South African rand devalued fast and the government was plunged into a crisis.
[edit] Casualties
The accounts of how many people died vary from 200 to 600, although the original government figure claimed only 23 students were killed. The number of wounded was estimated to be over a thousand people. Not all informantion is accurrate, as the government tried to cover up the killings of students (this information not being viewed well).
[edit] International reaction
Henry Kissinger, United States Secretary of State at the time, was about to visit South Africa at the time of the riot, and the uprisings cast a negative light on the entire country.
African National Congress (ANC) exiles called for international action and more economic sanctions against South Africa.
Images of the riots spread all over the world, shocking millions. The photograph of Hector Pieterson's dead body, as captured by photo-journalist Sam Nzima, caused outrage and brought down international condemnation on the Apartheid government. There were protests against the regime held outside of South Africa in many Western nations. The United Nations imposed even more sanctions on South Africa. There were boycotts and much animosity towards the regime internationally.
[edit] Legacy
Many consider the riots an event which signified the beginning of the end for apartheid. The effects of the riots echoed across the country. After the riots, many black citizens were awakened to the reality of apartheid, and started to resist, while some white citizens also withdrew their support for the government. Despite continuing government crackdowns, popular unrest and opposition to apartheid continued to grow until the end of the 1980s. Local and international pressure led to the negotiated ending of apartheid between 1990 and 1994.
The Soweto riots are depicted in the 1987 film by director Richard Attenborough, Cry Freedom, and in the musical film Sarafina. The riots also inspired a novel by Andre Brink called A Dry White Season, and a 1989 movie of the same title. In the 2003 film Stander, the Soweto riots start Captain Andre Stander's disillusionment with apartheid.
Today June 16 is celebrated in South Africa as Youth Day.
[edit] See also
- Apartheid
- Black Consciousness Movement
- Desmond Tutu
- Hastings Ndlovu
- Hector Pieterson
- History of South Africa
- Liberation before education
- Soweto
- Steve Biko
[edit] External links
- Guardian Unlimited audio recording of Antoinette Sithole (Pieterson) on the Soweto uprising. [1]
- The photograph that changed the world, by Jerome Cartillier, Mail & Guardian, June 16, 2006.
- Soweto uprisings . com, an extensive mashup with loads of info on the events on June 16th 1976.
