Soweto Uprising Essay

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Though the school children may have been influenced by the Black Consciousness Movement of the 1970s, many former students from Soweto do not recall any involvement of outside organizations or liberation movements in their decision to protest the use of Afrikaans at their schools (Soweto Student Uprising).

In his memoir, Sifiso Ndlovu noted that him and his fellow classmates at Phefeni junior secondary school all looked forward to their studies in school, but he also noted that the use of Afrikaans significantly lower their grades because they didn’t fully understand the language (Soweto Student Uprising).

During those shots fired in the crowd Hector Pieterson and Hastings Ndiovu were killed by stray bullets. The Soweto riots of 1976 were the most brutal and violent riots that had taken place against the South African apartheid administration and the Bantu education.

It was also amazing in how far the riots reached and how fast it spread to other regions.

Another boy was shot and killed during the uprising. He was shot and killed around the same time as pieterson, but Ndiovu didn’t get as famous as pieterson (Soweto Student Uprising).

Most of the other students say they never heard of any outside organizations before the uprising.On the morning of June 16, 1976, thousands of students from the African township of Soweto, south west of Johannesburg, gathered at their schools to participate in a student-organized protest.Many of them carried signs that read, ‘Down with Afrikaans’ and ‘Bantu Education – to Hell with it.Bantu education was the main cause for the uprising.The Bantu Education imposed Afrikaans as the medium of instruction.Disclaimer: This work has been submitted by a student.This is not an example of the work produced by our Essay Writing Service.Others sang freedom songs as the unarmed crowd of schoolchildren marched their towards the Orlando soccer stadium where the peaceful rally had been planned. En route to the stadium, it is estimated fifty policemen stopped the students and tried to turn them back.At first, the security forces tried non-lethal attempts to try and disperse the crowd.Afrikaans is a language derived from Dutch that developed among the white, Khoisan, and slave populations of the Cape Colony.Afrikaans was recognized as an official language in 1925 and was further developed with the rise of Afrikaner nationalism and apartheid. The Soweto Uprising came after a decade of relative calmness also known as “Silent Decade” (Soweto Student Uprising).