The Soweto Uprising

Question 1

Mobilisation of school children

Answer 1

• Between 1950-75 African children at school rose from 1m to 5m.
• In Soweto, this put pressure on buildings & staff with classes now over 60 (schools became sights of deprivation & explosive political potential).
• The consciousness movement gave students an identity, who were not prepared to act against gangs (Hazels/Dirty Dozen – Tsosis in the street).

Question 2

Main cause of the Soweto Uprising

Answer 2

The regular day to day tension was heightened as a result of the 1974 Transvaal Bantu Education Act – this expanded teaching Afrikaans at African schools.
The language of the oppressor, the language of racism (they would now have to master two languages as well as their original Africans. Teachers who refused the directive were fired, students refusing to write it were expelled.

Question 3

Events of Soweto Uprising

Answer 3

• 16th June – march to Orlando stadium. Here 2,000 pupils were confronted by 50 police officers at Orlando West School (police released dogs & fired leaving a few dead & wounded SO students attacked government buildings & killed two officials).
  Quote from the ‘Kaffir Boy’ – ‘small children, small defenseles children, dropped down like flies’.

Question 4

Post massacre events:

Answer 4

• 17th June – 300 Wits University students marched & Turnfloop students tried to burn down the Afrikaans department on their campus.
• 18th June – official buildings, shops were attacked in Alexandra township were attacked.
  Famous example – 13 year old boy Hector Peterson was shot dead by police
• Over weeks incidents spread through the country, students formed a Soweto Student’s Representative Council.
• As well as targeting liquor stores, they boycotted white-owned shops & threatened vengeance against ‘sell out and traitors of the black struggle’.
• Winnie Mandela helped form a Black Parent’s Association to organize funerals (politicised occasions).

Question 5

Winnie Mandela

Answer 5

Winne too had been targeted and victimized by the police since Mandela’s imprisonment. She was imprisoned without charge for this association for 5 moths. In 1977 she was banished to a remote township to isolate her politically. (she played a role in maintaining Mandela’s name & the ANC legacy).

Question 6

Results of the Soweto Uprising

Answer 6

Government commission calculated 575 deaths (360 blacks) in Soweto revolt & its aftermath. (most violent episode of repression since Sharpeville & similarly attracted global attention). An estimated 4000 youths fled to avoid arrest, when student leaders were imprisoned on Robben Island (with Mandela/Sisulu), most black consciousness activists moved over to the ANC.

Question 7

Steve Biko’s death 1977

Answer 7

• 1973 government banned him; restricting his ability to help the black consciousness movement.
• He maintained a high profile through his writing, some published which defined black consciousness.
• His profile raised in the Eastern Cape because his ideas were taken up by Donald Woods (white editor of Daily Dispatch).
• 1977, Biko left Kingwillianstown (where he was made to live) breaking the ban order, arrested & severely beaten.
  A few weeks later he was rushed to a prison hospital in Pretoria & died 12th September 1977.

Question 8

Reaction to Biko’s death

Answer 8

Police claimed his death caused by a hunger strike. But, Woods challenged this cover up & made allegations of police brutality (provoking international disapproval of police custody – Woods used photographic evidence of his body).