1976 student-led protests in South Africa that were violently suppressed
Soweto uprising
Part of apartheid
Hector Pieterson being carried by Mbuyisa Makhubo after being shot by the South African police. His sister, Antoinette Sithole, runs beside them. Pieterson was rushed to a local clinic where he was declared dead on arrival. This photo by Sam Nzima became an icon of the Soweto uprising.
Location
Soweto, South Africa
Date
16–18 June 1976
Deaths
Minimum of 176 with some estimates ranging up to 700
Injured
1,000+
Victims
Students
Assailants
South African Police
Part of a series on
Apartheid
Events
1948 general election
Coloured vote constitutional crisis
1956 Treason Trial
Sharpeville massacre
Rivonia Trial
Soweto uprising
Church Street, Pretoria bombing
Vaal uprising
Trojan Horse Incident
Khotso House bombing
Cape Town peace march
CODESA
Assassination of Chris Hani
Saint James Church massacre
Shell House massacre
Organisations
ANC
APLA
IFP
AWB
BBB
Black Sash
CCB
Conservative Party
DP
ECC
FOSATU
PP
RP
PFP
HNP
MK
PAC
UDF
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SACC
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State Security Council
People
Vernon Berrangé
P. W. Botha
Steve Biko
Mangosuthu Buthelezi
F. W. de Klerk
Ruth First
Bram Fischer
Arthur Goldreich
Chris Hani
Bantu Holomisa
Joel Joffe
Ahmed Kathrada
Albert Luthuli
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
Mac Maharaj
D. F. Malan
Nelson Mandela
Govan Mbeki
Thabo Mbeki
Raymond Mhlaba
Benjamin Moloise
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J. G. Strijdom
Joe Slovo
Robert Sobukwe
Helen Suzman
Adelaide Tambo
Oliver Tambo
Eugène Terre'Blanche
Desmond Tutu
H. F. Verwoerd
B. J. Vorster
Jacob Zuma
Places
Bantustan
District Six
Robben Island
Sophiatown
South-West Africa
Soweto
Sun City
Vlakplaas
Related topics
Afrikaner nationalism
Apartheid in popular culture
Apartheid legislation
Cape Qualified Franchise
Disinvestment campaign
Freedom Charter
Internal resistance to apartheid
Kairos Document
Music in the movement against apartheid
Nostalgia for apartheid
Project Coast
Sullivan Principles
Category
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The Soweto uprising (or Soweto riots) was a series of demonstrations and protests led by black school children in South Africa during apartheid that began on the morning of 16 June 1976.[1]
Students from various schools began to protest in the streets of the Soweto township in response to the introduction of Afrikaans, considered by many blacks as the "language of the oppressor", as the medium of instruction in black schools.[2] It is estimated that 20,000 students took part in the protests. They were met with fierce police brutality, and many were shot and killed. The number of pupils killed in the uprising is usually estimated as 176, but some sources estimate as many as 700 fatalities.[3][4][5] The riots were a key moment in the fight against apartheid as it sparked renewed opposition against apartheid in South Africa both domestically and internationally. In remembrance of these events, 16 June is a public holiday in South Africa since 1991,[6] named Youth Day. Internationally, 16 June is known as The Day of the African Child (DAC).[6][7]
^"The birth and death of apartheid". Retrieved 17 June 2002.
^"The Youth Struggle". South African History Online.
^Boddy-Evans, Alistair. "16 June 1976 Student Uprising in Soweto". africanhistory.about.com.
^Harrison, David (1987). The White Tribe of Africa.[page needed]
^(Les Payne of Newsday said at least 850 murders were documented) Elsabe Brink; Gandhi Malungane; Steve Lebelo; Dumisani Ntshangase; Sue Krige, Soweto 16 June 1976, 2001, 9
^ ab"About Day of the African Child | ACERWC - African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child". www.acerwc.africa. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
^"The Day of the African Child demonstrates the importance of defending children's rights in the digital space". www.unicef.org. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
The Sowetouprising (or Soweto riots) was a series of demonstrations and protests led by black school children in South Africa during apartheid that began...
acronym SOWETO (South West Townships). The name Soweto was first used in 1963 and within a short period of time, following the 1976 uprising of students...
African schoolboy who was shot and killed at the age of 12 during the Sowetouprising, when the police opened fire on black students protesting the enforcement...
system". It eventually sparked a confrontation on 16 June 1976 in the Sowetouprising, when Black children marched to protest both linguistic imperialism...
assertive Black Consciousness Movement. The brutal suppression of the 1976 Sowetouprising radicalised a generation of black activists and greatly bolstered the...
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resistance that began in the 1960s. The Sowetouprising in 1976 led to a renaissance, with songs such as "Soweto Blues" encouraging a more direct challenge...
Avalon Cemetery, was the main student leader of the Soweto Uprising that began in Soweto and spread across South Africa in June, 1976. Teboho Tsietsi...
is named in his honour and covers the events of the anti-Apartheid SowetoUprising, where more than 170 protesting school children were killed. The museum...
"Soweto Blues" is a protest song written by Hugh Masekela and performed by Miriam Makeba. The song is about the Sowetouprising that occurred in 1976,...
needed] resulted in their forming the aforementioned ties. Following the Sowetouprising in 1976 and its brutal suppression by the apartheid regime, the arms...
Orlando, Soweto on 15 June 1960 and was the youngest member of the South African Students' Organisation that planned and led the Sowetouprising. He was...
government secondary school in Soweto. Founded in 1956, the school took an important role at the start of the SowetoUprising in 1976. The school was named...
and former anti-apartheid activist. One of the leaders of the 1976 Sowetouprising, he later represented the African National Congress in Parliament from...
widely-circulated and influential image of Hector Pieterson for the Sowetouprising, but struggled for years to get the copyright. Sam Masana Nzima was...
protests, a similar toll over months at the Gaza-Israeli border. Gwangju Uprising, a similar event in South Korea Thammasat University massacre, a similar...
death in detention. In 1976, secondary students in Soweto took to the streets in the Sowetouprising to protest against the imposition of Afrikaans as...
and international isolation of the apartheid regime. After the 1976 Sowetouprising, MK received a large influx of new recruits, who were used to escalate...
in this form, also lacked any international recognition. After the SowetoUprising in 1976, as Prime Minister, Vorster encouraged the Department of Information...
Johannesburg. Dr Edelstein was one of the two white men who died in the Sowetouprising of 16 June 1976, when he was stoned to death by a crowd of enraged...
with a nationwide stay-away on 16 June, the anniversary of the 1976 Sowetouprising. It was overshadowed when later that week, on 17–18 June 1992, 45 residents...
Egypt and the Soviet Union and other communist-bloc countries. The Sowetouprising of 1976 led to a large exodus of young black men and women. Anxious...
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South African Police