Soweto Uprising and Apartheid in South Africa

Soweto Uprising and Apartheid in South Africa

South Africa is a proud nation that can claim to be one of the most influential nations on the African continent. Its economic power, technological advancement and standard of living is unrivaled by its brother African nations. However, all of this is plagued by a brutal system of racial repression that dominated much of its history. South Africa was a stunning example of a modern nation where a minority had such a great deal of power over a staggering majority. The word Apartheid is Afrikaans for separateness. This separateness was South Africa’s legal system of racial segregation that was enforced from 1948 until 1994. The way this system worked was that citizens where broken down into four racial classifications and received benefits or restrictions based on this. The four groups where; White, Black, Colored and Indian, where the White’s held absolute power and authority, which was enforced by the constitution. Under this system almost everything was segregated including health care, education and public amenities, where the standards for whites and non whites were in sharp contrast. Because of this terrible treatment of non whites, blacks and other racial groups became quite disenfranchised with the ruling party of South Africa. In 1950, the National Party created a Colored Affairs Department and one of their first acts was to strip blacks and coloreds of their voting rights in Cape Province. Four voters challenged this act’s validity but it was upheld in court by a two- thirds majority. This obviously set the precedent for the stripping of natural rights and freedoms for non whites in South Africa. Just as in any other cultural conflict, there were those who were willing to fight for what they thought was right. South Africa has many such examples in regards to apartheid, but the Soweto uprising of 1976 is one of the most famous. This conflict started out as a peaceful one, the blacks of Soweto disagreeing on the new law demanding that half of classes in school must be instructed in Afrikaans. The blacks of the region believed that Afrikaans was a symbol of the oppression the endured and their unwillingness to learn the language was their way of reaching for freedom. Also, the teachers themselves did not speak Afrikaans well, which would hinder the educational process. On the 13th of June, 19 year old Tsietsi Mashinini called a meeting of 400 students and suggested that they have a demonstration against Afrikaans the following Wednesday, June 16th. The other children decided to not tell their parents of their intentions and go ahead with the idea. This proved to be a crucial turning point for South Africa as a whole. On the morning of June 16th, students from schools across Soweto began to march towards Orlando Secondary School. Thousands had joined in on the effort to show the government that they would not be deterred. By the time everyone had assembled, there were over 15,000 uniformed students in attendance. The plan at the stadium was to agree on a list of grievances and then march down to the department of education to speak out. This never happened. The police reacted quickly to the growing “threat” and ordered them to disperse from the stadium. The students resisted and the police began firing tear gas into the crowd. The confused students began to run around in chaos, some began throwing rocks and other objects at the police. All of sudden, a shot was fired and one 12 year old student fell, mortally wounded. The situation quickly deteriated from there. Police took the shot as a signal to fire into the crowd and many more were killed and injured. The township quickly fell into disarray. Riots broke out everywhere and the Army was called in to neutralize the threat. As Army helicopters flew overhead and soldiers walked the streets, many blacks began looting and causing destruction. As night fell, the soldiers fired indiscriminately into the darkness and a massive amount of innocent civilians were killed. The amount of destruction caused by both sides was beyond imagination. It truly compared itself to a massacre or genocide. This horrendous act caused outrage throughout South Africa and around the world. Blacks saw this as a turning point for them and demanded the same things that the Soweto children had. The nation was in a serious state of turmoil, buckling to the demands of the majority they were losing control of. Foreign nations who had once tolerated South Africa’s internal polices had drew a line in the sand, claiming they had gone too far. Riots continued throught the country and over 450 people had died at the hands of the police by the end of the year. Also 5,984 people were arrested throught South Africa that year in the government’s effort to fight the black movement towards equality. In conclusion, the system of apartheid in South Africa can be seen as one of the greatest cultural conflicts in history. Events such as the Soweto uprising showed the fighting spirit of those unwilling to give up their god given rights to freedom. The Soweto uprising of 1976 was a tragic event, but it did accomplish its goal. After 1976, teachers in South Africa were allowed to teach how they chose, blacks were given permanent residency in cities, businesses were now allowed to be owned by blacks and ultimately these events led to the abolition of the apartheid system. People of all races were welcomed to participate in all things and were looked upon as equals in 1994. The memories of all those involved in such a noble struggle will always be remembered by not only south Africans but by all those who value freedom and equality for all.