Remembering the Soweto uprising on June and 16, 1976 and commemoration of the African Youth Day

We are student militants, and we appreciate black history of resistance and the role played by black men and women who took the risk of doing things which the felt would bring honor to the race and restore blacks' dignity. It is with this understanding that we joined conscious men and women in the world in remembrance of the heroic struggle of the Soweto Uprising and the commemoration of The African Youth Day.

History has taught us that on this day, black school going students from the bantustans and native reserves of South Africa rise in objection to the Afrikaans Medium Decree of 1974, which forced all black schools to use Afrikaans and English in a 50–50 mix as languages of instruction instituted by pernicious Apartheid regime. This backward draconian decree which was passed by the white minority in South Africa to perpetuate white supremacy and domination met a strong resistance of the black student masses.

It was premised on this the students hastily established the Soweto Students Representative Council (SSRC) making comrade General Teboho "Tsietsi" Mashinini as the head to lead the campaign of resistance. And it was not only the students of Soweto that resented this decree. Earlier Struggle icon and Noble Peace prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu has opposed and the South Africa Students Movement of struggle Ancestor Steve Biko had objected too. On the National square, The South African Communist Party of comrade Marxist Joe Slovo and "The Odanga" ( leading Liberation movement )African National Congress had done the same.

Early on this day, the students came out in their hundreds of thousands from their hostile enclaves to show to the world, the inequality of a system that imposed her foreign language on African students with great respect for their African Culture and its tenets with regards to their vernacular. They came out with bare hands and opened chests willing to pay the price to defend their African dignity. They were prepared to share their last blood and sweat but not condone themselves to this harsh imperial decree. And they paid the price that day. They died in struggling for the right cause as the photo shows the dead body of martyr comrade General Hector Pieterson being carried by comrade Mbuyisa Makhubo and his sister Antoinette Sithole running beside them.

It is estimated that over 176 people died that day and over 700 people died in the resistance that lasted for almost three months. The world wondered what kind of system would unleash dum dum bullets on students for rising against injustice. What kind of system would bend on suppressing people because they were not of the same race and class and continue to exploit a septum of a country leaving them wallow in the cesspools of penury, destitution, and political marginalization.

This brutality did frighten and falter the people from resisting the unjust system.

For them, the blood of innocent people spattered by the system were the catalysts and enzymes that would foment the path to liberation and to build an egalitarian society.

Every life taken was heroic sacrifice to solidify their persistent struggle to disentangle themselves from the shackles and chains of the hearth of excruciation and the severe agony of injustice to lead them to national posterity. They were clear about their struggle in preserving a scintillating future for their generational descendants in that they will not live on the kneels for the homeland their mothers and fathers died of on their feet.

Today this history has made it possible for the blacks in South Africa in that, they can now go to schools with their white counterparts with equal rights and privileges without discrimination. They can serve leadership positions and own and run businesses in harmony despite the economic inequality with the neo liberal capitalists and the continuous labor exploitation of the people on the mines and plantations owned and operated by white monopoly capital. These are the fruits of the heroic struggle of the Soweto Uprising and the people determination to achieve a resplendent South African through permanent struggle.

The historical antecedents of this heroic struggle of the Soweto Uprising have inspired the younger generation of the African continent to always tremble at the indignation of injustice anywhere and to rise to demand better for their welfare and advancements of their given domains.

With our right arms up, we give in red, green and black salutes to the memories of the heroic student and the general masses of South Africa for their roles played in crippling imperialism in one aspect of their society.

To the commemoration of the African youth day, this occasion should not just be a mere jamboree of fine speeches and flattering activities. We must dramatize ourselves with the tragic facts we are faced with. We must be real and sincere to our consciences about the dilemma we the growing youth populace of this continent are stocked in. The increasing unemployment rates and lack of of opportunity to develop and our talents and aplomb potentials and transform them into usable instruments to move our continent forward. The lacks of means to obtaining good and quality education to lessen the high illiteracy rate our continent is doomed with.

The blunt hardship we are enduring thus causing a lot of brothers and sisters to go astray in society, becoming drug addicts and prostitutes. This is the farce we the youth of this continent are faced with leaving some of us with despair and hopelessness.

After 50years from colonial yoke, this continent still knows pain. This continent still knows hunger. This continent still injustice. This continent which is the richest in prospects is still the poorest. This continent continues to punch below her economic, social and political weight. This continent has not yet realized her potentials. We are not significant players in the affairs of the world.

But beyond lamentations what can we do as young people going forward? Are we going to sit and continue to complain? We must answer the questions. We must start to put our arts together to benefit our continent. We must begin to love things that are of Africa and with this, our continent will rise. I hope our generation understands its task.

Afrika will rise!

About the author

Gammal Jusu Kamara III is a leftwing student activist reading Political science with emphasis in international relations at the University of Liberia and a militant of the Revolutionary Vanguard Student Unification Party (SUP). He can reach via [email protected]