Youth Day 2022: Do youngsters know who Hector Pieterson is?
To remember those young people who fought against apartheid and for the peace we live in today, Caxton Local Media journalists interviewed members of the youth from this day and age and asked them questions about the infamous picture.
ON June 16 each year, Youth Day is celebrated nationally in South Africa. The day commemorates the Soweto Uprising, which took place on 16 June 1976, where thousands of students were ambushed and attacked by police officers from the apartheid regime.
On Youth Day, South Africans pay tribute to the lives of these students and recognise the role that they played in the liberation of South Africa from the apartheid regime.
The Bantu Education Act and the Soweto Uprising
In January 1954, the Bantu Education Act was instated, making it compulsory for black children to attend government schools and learn specific subjects aligned with the apartheid regime in English and Afrikaans.
Before the Bantu Education Act came into effect, most black children only had access to schools that were understaffed and poorly attended to.
The Bantu Education system was not an improvement. The school facilities were horrible, there was overcrowding in the classrooms and inadequately trained teachers, resulting in black children leaving the school system without a proper education.
This level of education allowed black people to only enter low-level positions in the South African workforce.
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In January of 1976, all indigenous languages were banned by the government, and it was made mandatory that all learners across South Africa be taught in English and Afrikaans.
This decision was what caused 16-year-old Antoinette Sithole and an estimated 20 000 students from Soweto, and the surrounding secondary and high schools, to peacefully protest Afrikaans as the primary teaching language in schools on the morning of June 16, 1976.
The protest was planned by the Soweto Students Representative (SSRC), with support from the Black Consciousness Movement. This student protest would go on to become one of the most tragic and influential protests in all of South Africa’s history.
The police responded to the protest by firing tear gas and live ammunition at demonstrating students. The police began to shoot at the protesters, and in the chaos, Sithole’s 13-year-old brother Hector Pieterson was fatally shot.
The now-iconic picture, depicting Pieterson’s lifeless body being carried through the Soweto streets, shot by photojournalist Sam Nzima, was published and received international attention. This picture now symbolises the Soweto Uprising and how violent the apartheid regime really was.
At least 176 black students, many of them children, including Hector Pieterson, lost their lives on 16 June 1976.
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Speaking to today’s youth
To remember those young people who fought against apartheid and for the peace we live in today, Caxton Local Media journalists interviewed members of the youth from this day and age and asked them what the infamous picture means to them, if they recognise it and what it signifies.
“I have seen this image before – I saw it in my textbook in Grade Five when I learnt about the Soweto uprising. For me, it brought up a lot of feelings of sadness and confusion. Why would authorities do this to the youth? Why would they purposefully harm young children? Today, the photo definitely stands for empowerment for me – looking at how the youth back then were able to have their own voice and stand up for what they needed and what was right for them. It’s an empowering picture – it encourages the youth today – to know that we could also have such an impact on our own lives.”
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