May 7, 2020: South African Apartheid Part 3

Miriam Makeba sings Soweto Blues, by Hugh Masekala

How does this song make you feel? What emotions does it evoke?

Violence against Black South Africans came to a head in June of 1976. Thousands of students from schools in Soweto, a black neighborhood outside of Johannesburg, took to the streets to protest that schools would no longer be taught in native languages but in Afrikaans, the language of the Apartheid regime. Students from both high schools and elementary schools were met with force and gunfire from the police. Thousands were wounded and at least 176 were killed (although numbers are uncertain ranging from 23 - the government's number - to 700).

Sources A to F each emphasize a particular cause of the Soweto Uprising. Read and look at the sources carefully. When you are done, answer the prompt at the bottom of the page.

Source A Statistics for Soweto 1976 Population:……………………………………… 1.5 million Area:…………………………………………… 87 km square Location: ………………………………………... ±10 km south-west of Johannesburg’s city centre Administration: ………………………………… West Rand Administration Board Electricity: ………………………………………. 20% of homes Hot water: ………………………………………. 5% of homes Hospitals: ………………………………………. 1 Schools: ………………………………………… 280 Number of pupils per class:………………….. 60 Average rent per month:………………………. R40 for two-roomed house Average income per month:…………………... R100 Average cost of living per month:…………….. R140 Number of homeless:…………………………. 400 000 Employment: …………………………………… Very little - R = a Rand, South African currency - 8 Rand = $1.00 - Most people commute daily to work elsewhere in the Greater Johannesburg region.

From What is History? Skotaville Educational Division for the NECC, p 45

Think about the answers to the following questions to help understand the statistics above:

1.	If only 20% of homes have electricity, 5% of homes have hot water, and there is only one hospital  for 1.5 million people, what do these statistics tell us about the general living conditions in Soweto?

2.	Look at the average income for people living in Soweto. Compare it with their monthly costs? What does this tell us about living standards of the general population of Soweto?

3.	Do you think that there was adequate schooling in Soweto? Use the statistics to prove your answer.

4.	If you lived in Soweto in 1976, based on these statistics, what would your major grievance have been?

5.	How could these statistics help you to understand why there was such anger in the townships in 1976?

Source B

Given black grievances ranging from low pay and poor housing to the pass laws and political repression, virtually any issue could have set off a generalized upheaval. The one that finally did was the regime's decision to implement a policy of teaching half the courses in African secondary schools in the southern Transvaal through the medium of Afrikaans.

From White Rule – Black Revolt by E Harsch, p 35

Source C

Students marching in Soweto on 16 June 1976

 Bailey’s African History Archives, Mike Mzilen

Source D

No new secondary schools were built in Soweto between 1962 and 1971 because it was government policy that all new schools should be built exclusively in the homelands. As a result, secondary school classes were severely overcrowded and many teachers resorted to increasingly harsh methods to maintain control. Pupils bitterly resented this.

Adapted from Soweto: A History by P Bonner and L Segal, p 78

Source E

South African Student Movement’s efforts to promote political awareness were encouraged in 1973 when SASO students staged walkouts from black universities. Many of these ‘drop-outs’ became teachers in Soweto. Armed with BC ideology, they inspired a new spirit of radicalism. Many students tell of the impact these teachers had on them.

Adapted from Soweto: A History by P Bonner and L Segal, p 80

Source F

There was ‘an atmosphere of revolt’ in the 1970s. There were the liberation struggles in Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia. There were the black workers’ strikes in the 1970s.

Quoted in The Right to Learn by P Christie, p 243

Source G

Baby Tyawa was a student who was involved in the Soweto Uprising. In an interview in 2003, she explains the significance of the uprising:

“It affected us both positively and negatively. A lot of us missed out on normal school. But it assisted us to know that the struggle for freedom needed the commitment and support of the liberation movements who were then banned, as well as leaders who were imprisoned. It set in our lives the role of full-time activism. The Soweto Uprising changed the history and landscape of the politics of the country permanently. Young people swelled the ranks of the liberation movements abroad, especially the ANC.”

Today's prompt:

Which source do you believe provides the most convincing explanation for the outbreak of the Soweto Uprising?  Provide a clear reason for your answer.

The international community was appalled by any nation that would 

turn its guns on its own children.  

• The United Nations called for a full scale embargo of goods and weapons that could be used by the regime against the people of South Africa. 
• Universities who had investments in South African countries divested (got rid of) them.
• Economic boycotts of South African goods were called for all over the world putting a hole in the pockets of the wealthy industrialists who had been supportive of the regime. 
• South Africans were denied access to international sporting events like the Olympics and FIFA futball. 
• South African Airlines was denied the right to refuel in other nations when taking trans-continental flights. 
• The boycott even went to the cultural realm. Tomorrow we will look at the cultural boycott