Reminiscing about the horrible events around June 16
FOR some, June 16 is yet another public holiday in South Africa . But for most, it is a day that helped shape the future of this country.
Title: The children of Soweto
Author: Mbulelo Vizikhungo Mzamane
Publisher: Maskew Miller Longman
The Children of Soweto is a fictitious account of the events surrounding what has now become known as Youth Day.
Mbulelo Mzamane does an excellent job describing what happened during that dark period in 1976 and also captures the significance of standing up against oppression.
A great example of such oppression is when the apartheid government banned the novel when it was first published in 1982.
It was re-released this year, for literary study and is aimed at high school pupils.
The three-part, 276-page book chronicles the lives of a group of youths during and after the Soweto uprising.
The novel is a trilogy and Mzamane uses different voices in each book to tell the story of the days before, during and after 16 June.
In book one, Sabelo narrates the tale of a group of pupils living in the big, vibrant township and about their struggles. Their growing frustration over "the system's" decision to introduce Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in schools is well documented. Their plans to refuse being taught in a language they hardly know and receiving an inferior education are laid bare in book one.
Book two tells about the the day of the march and ensuing riots through the eyes of a black man and a white man. Sipho (no surname) and Johann Venter are colleagues returning from work. It is dangerous for the Afrikaner to be in Soweto, especially on this day. The struggles of Sipho, his friends and family to deal with the situation outline the tense atmosphere on this day.
Book three, by far the most compelling, is narrated by Mazwi. The days after the uprising are chronicled in great detail. One really understands the gravity of the situation and just how brave the youngsters were.
Through fictitious characters, Mzamane describes what must have been happening and going through the minds of the people who were present then.
A character named Tsiesti (presumably Mashinini) is there too.
What comes to mind while reading this book is the sacrifices of the pupils . They were tortured by the police and m any had to flee the country. More than anything, they sacrificed their lives for their cause .
One ponders whether the current generation of pupils would make the same sacrifices for what they believe in?
The book is written in English and many of the Zulu and Afrikaans words used unfortunately lose their meaning in translation .
Often, Mzamane diverts to explain something that is not of much significance, which detracts from the main point. Despite that, the book is easy to follow. Mzamane is not explicit in describing the horrendous acts of the police, but takes great care in telling everything in thorough detail.
The book is aimed at the younger generation , yet older South Africans would appreciate it too.
Mzamane, having being partly educated overseas and held high positions in local tertiary institutions, captures the importance of this time and succeeds in holding the interest of the reader with interesting anecdotes between the more serious topics.
Overall, this book is a nice and simple read for people who care to reminisce about this historic time.
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Comments
Skomoro99
The same youth that fought for thiz fat cats is now being undermined.ANC uses this day 2 gain votes but its not gonna work anymo n thoz who died on that day were fightin 4 nothing.The past is gone n we cant keep being intimidated by thiz underhand tactics 2 gain votes.Wat the new SA unda ANC is teaching us is 2 know ppl in order 2 survive.DA i shall remain
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sarmologadi
For me it is one of the holidays, since we have fat cats who dont encourage our youth to learn and empower themselves instead they teach them to be stupid, illiterates who will cash in thru tax payer's money.....corruption is the lesson to our youth in SA... When NPO and NGO try to instill the education in youth, fat cats those steal ideas for their personal gain or recognitionReport Abuse
Osirus
We must always remember what them sick europeans did to us on June 16 and they are still killing us in 2012 killing us not with the gun as such but through the use of economics and like parasites they control the infrastructure of our! country Azanina a black african country. And you can thank president zuma for keeping it that way.....What sick a joak!Report Abuse
LBS
@OsirusWe must always remember what them sick europeans did to us on June 16 and they are still killing us in 2012 killing us not with the gun as such but through the use of economics and like parasites they control the infrastructure of our! country Azanina a black african country. And you can thank president zuma for keeping it that way.....What sick a joak!
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Shouldn't you be at school getting an education, learning how to spell and the meaning of words?
A parasite LIVES OFF something else - it doesn't supply anything!
The 'sick europeans' (sic) built the economy and infrastructure and the parasites want to claim the benefits without doing the work.
Understand the difference? Perhaps not ....
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Commrade
Comrades as much as i "we" like ANC, we need to be honest ANC is now losing it's plot we don't know the ANC that came in power 1994. the ANC of 1999....now it's its like a circus i dont understand what's going. June 16 used to be a day to celebrate and commemorate and paying respect to those who lost their lifes so that we would be leaving the life we leave today.@Sarmologadi the youth is know taking this day 16June as a day to drink alcohol and misbehave and do all the funny things again what is the ANC doing about that nothing.
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spokowee
enough already!Report Abuse
Iwe
When ever June 16 is approaching I feel saddness inside of me, like I was there when it was happening and the worst part is I cry a lot and i dont want to see these pictures of dying school kids. I wonder why I feel like this, my mom was still 15yrs of age. So the picture of me was not even in her mind. I just dont like this feeling I dont know why its happening to me and I dont know how to remove it.Report Abuse
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