The Soweto Uprising of 1976 an education Related Outcry by Students

Around 3:00 pm on Sunday April 11, 1993 a riot started when prisoners returning from recreation time attacked prison guards in cell block L. The guards held the keys to the entire cell block and it did not take long for the prisoners to take full advantage of the keys. Four beaten guards were released within hours of the attack but 8 were retained. The riot was started for many reasons but the most obvious reason was TB testing on Muslims, they do not believe in using needles to take blood or for injections. Soon after the take over of the cell block Warren Tate shut off the power and water in the cell block. A “Death Squad” was formed in the beginning hours of the riot and black prisoners killed 5 white inmates. After this happened the

down, and the frightened soldiers fired into the crowd. When the shooting ended, several people

In the 1930’s it was rare for a black South African to attend college. But Mandela not only attended, he graduated, got a degree from law school, and set up a practice in Johannesburg which he hoped could support his small family. Yet apartheid was always a humiliation to him. When the Afrikaner, or Dutch South African, Nationalists came to power in the 1948 election, the segregation habits of the past three hundred years became law. Hoping for a brighter future, Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC) and became its first Youth Leader.

Thesis Statement: Apartheid may have been a horrible era in South African history, but only so because the whites were forced to take action against the outrageous and threatening deeds of the blacks in order to sustain their power.

The Apartheid was initiated as a ploy for Europeans to better control the exploited populations for economic gain, as maintaining tension between the different racial classifications diverted attention from the Europeans as it fed hatred between groups. This assisted in minimizing unity between the exploited to rally against European control as it backhandedly induced “submission” for survival. One way of accomplishing this was by instilling laws that’d force segregation, classification, educational “requirements”, and economic purposes. The Population Registration Act of 1950 enacted, requiring segregation of Europeans from Afrikaans . Following shortly, the Group Areas Act of 1950 was enacted as a new form of legislation alongside the Population Registration Act. This detailed act separated tribes based on ethnics; consequently, further detailing segregation amongst the natives .

As a result of racial segregation, resistance from coloured people in both the United States and South Africa escalated. Furthermore, the history of the African civil rights movement validated: “Nationalism has been tested in the people’s struggles . . . and [proved to be] the only antidote against foreign rule and modern imperialism” (Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom 2008, 156) . By comparing and contrasting the American Jim Crow Laws and South African apartheid, we have evidence that both nations’ constitutions led to discrimination, activism, reform and reconciliation.

How did the response of the Black community change, especially after students began being arrested? How did this response reinforce the action of the students?

Beginning early in the 1970s and extending into the ‘80s, students, laborers and ordinary citizens became more involved in the struggle against Apartheid. High school students began protesting the segregated system more vigorously, and many ended up dead at the hands of National Party police forces in the June uprising of 1976. The late 70’s and 80’s saw the rise in dissidence amongst ordinary South Africans towards the Apartheid laws. After the student uprising of 1976, the ranks of MK were augmented considerably, leading to resurgence in anti-Apartheid activities and ushered in the first reforms to the Apartheid since its

The rioters looted stores, torched buildings, and beat white people as snipers fired at police and firefighters. Rumors circulated that the police had hit a pregnant woman. One five-year-old boy was killed by sniper fire (www.cnn.com). Incidents like these added fuel to the already raging fire of the riot.

This led to a blizzard of shots. Sitting bull, 8 supporting citizens, and 6 policemen were shot and killed, causing fear in many of the surrounding tribes.

The Sharpeville Massacre took place in a south african police station of Sharpeville. On March 21, 1960. During this event 5,000 to 7,000 protesters went to the police station after a day of demonstrations, offering themselves for arrest for not carrying passbooks. The mood of the protest had started out as peaceful and festive when there were only few people present but as the day went on about 20,00 came and the mood had turned “ugly”. There were casualties which was 69 people dead and 180 injured. This was caused by a chain reaction of gun

For years, South Africa’s Afrikaner Nationalist Party was conducting all types of racial attacks that were raising ethical issues. Along with the South African government, they reshaped racial laws and regulations, continuing with violence against blacks. Nonwhites outnumbered whites by about 5 to 1. Violence consisted of the Sharpeville massacre, the Soweto Street death demonstration, and the death of black leader who was in police custody. Through such acts, South Africa’s direct investment rose dramatically.

Many of the contemporary issues in South Africa can easily be associated with the apartheid laws which devastated the country. The people of South Africa struggle day by day to reverse “the most cruel, yet well-crafted,” horrific tactic “of social engineering.” The concept behind apartheid emerged in 1948 when the nationalist party took over government, and the all-white government enforced “racial segregation under a system of legislation” . The central issues stem from 50 years of apartheid include poverty, income inequality, land ownership rates and many other long term affects that still plague the brunt of the South African population while the small white minority still enjoy much of the wealth, most of the land and opportunities

The 1980s in South African history was a period of great resistance from the African population. This was the period where the Vervoedian regime that had existed during the peak of Apartheid, was finally breaking down. This essay will be focusing on the black youth resistance in the 1980s in South Africa. It will illustrate that the black youth, during this period, was both a liberation force and a destructive force as it depended on what side one was looking from. The State and a few township residents viewed them mainly as a destructive force but the organizations such as the ANC and other residents of the townships, viewed them as a strong liberation force. The essay will begin by giving a brief account of some of the reasons for the

The aim of this research essay is to determine the following; whether or not the Black Consciousness Movement’s ideology, headed by Steve Biko, once a black university student and a member of SASO, were prevalent in the Student Soweto Uprising of 1976 in response to the forcing of Afrikaans as a teaching language in black schools by the Bantu Education Board. Had the Black Consciousness Movement help the Student Movements in determining their stance and actions against the apartheid government and did the banned African National Congress’ Freedom Charter manifesto of non-racialism thrive in the student movement,