The Hector Pieterson Museum opened in 2002 (in Soweto) to commemorate the 566 people who died in the 1976 student uprising. Students protested against being forced to take their classes in Afrikaans (the language of the Dutch colonizers and their descendants) and mobilized a massive demonstration against Apartheid laws.
The museum is named after Hector Pieterson, a 13-year-old who was the first child killed by the police on June 16th, 1976. The photograph of him fatally wounded and carried in the hands of another young protester, Makubo, shocked the world and became a powerful symbol of the anti-Apartheid movement. Hector's sister, Antoinette, along side her brother in the photograph, now manages the museum which follows the chronology of events that led to the June 16th tragedy.
June 16th is now recognized as a national holiday, Youth Day!
POWER TO THE CHILDREN!
AMANDLA!
that is a revolutionary moment
ReplyDelete