The Soweto uprising
Sam Nzima
In June 1976 in the township of Soweto, near Johannesburg, South Africa, black students staged what they planned as a peaceful march against the apartheid government’s policy that decreed that lessons would be taught in Afrikaans, a European language descended from Dutch.
Police opened fire on the crowd killing a number of children and the scene turned into an orgy of violence which left 575 people dead and thousands injured.
The incident, which became known as the Soweto Uprising or the Soweto Riot, brought international condemnation of the government’s policies of discrimination.
The photo shows the body of Hector Pietersen, the first fatality of the riot, being carried by Mbuyisa Makhubo while his sister Antoinette runs alongside. It was taken by Sam Nzima, a photographer with The World, a Johannesburg newspaper, and was seen all over the world and became a symbol of the struggle against apartheid.
A short time later The World was closed down and banned, but the planned use of Afrikaans for tuition was dropped. Sam Nzima left Johannesburg and went into hiding in fear of persecution by the Security Police.
 |
 |