16 junho, 2016

Foi neste dia #288 (1976)

Forty years ago in Soweto, the poor suburb of Johannesburg, some 20,000 students protested peacefully against the introduction of Afrikaans (seen as the language of the oppressor colonialist), instead of English, in school instruction. The protest ended in panic with the police shooting directly at the children.

Before the age of viral pictures and instantaneous fame, the photo of an 18-year old boy carrying the dead body of his 12-year old friend while running away with the deceased's sister screaming by his side, showed the world the brutality of apartheid. The photographer (Sam Nzima), as well as the families of the deceased (Hector Pieterson) and his friend (Mbuyisa Makhubo) suffered harassment and threats from the authorities and were forced to go into hiding, or flee the country in exile.

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