My next stop on this tour is Moletsane High School in Soweto.  This is one of the schools that participated in the uprising about 40 years ago.  Soweto stands for SOuth WEst TOwnship.  It is the largest township in Africa and is adjacent to the city of Johannesburg.

     The Soweto uprising on June 16, 1976 was a turning point in the anti-apartheid struggle.  What has always been most inspiring to me is that the uprising was completely organized by high school and middle school students.  These students planned a peaceful march through the township of Soweto to protest the requirement that all courses be taught in Afrikaans.  (In a previous post I mentioned that language is the key to understanding South African politics and culture).  Afrikaans was the language of the white apartheid regime.  The requirement that all students be instructed in Afrikaans, rather than their mother tongue (or English), was an example of the restrictions and oppression of apartheid. 

     On June 15th black students met secretly, not even their parents or teachers knew, and decided to “go on strike.”  The next morning thousands of students walked through the streets of Soweto carrying signs and chanting. 
    When the students encountered a police barricade and refused to return to school, the police responded by opening fire on the children.   The number of casualties was in the hundreds.  No one will ever know the exact number because many parents were afraid to even claim the bodies of their dead children.  The police quickly collected and disposed of the corpses.

     One of the first casualties was 13 year old Hector Pieterson.  The image of his body being carried by another student was captured by a photographer and published in newspapers around the world.  It was because of the Soweto uprising that world opinion finally galvanized against the apartheid government.         The  photo at left is from the Hector Pieterson museum in Soweto.  The scattered bricks in the courtyard carry the names of some of the students who were killed that day.

Here is a link to an account of that day from one of the survivors.

South Africa is a country of many languages - 11 official languages, and several others besides.  In addition to English and Afrikaans (a Dutch derivative), most of the other languages here are in the Bantu language group.   Although regionally there may be a predominant language spoken, nation-wide there is no majority language.   Most people, especially young people, speak English, but it is the first language of only a small minority.

In many ways languages are the key to understanding South African politics and culture.  For example the fact that there is no majority language means that everyone is constantly reminded that they are part of a very diverse country.  Contrast this with the “English first” attitude of many Americans.  We have little tolerance for immigrants to our country who don’t quickly master English.  There is a cultural assimilation that is implicit in this expectation.  We think of ourselves as a diverse and tolerant country, but sometimes that just means that people from other cultures are welcome to come, learn English, and “act like Americans.”  In South Africa everyone is a minority.

Yesterday I walked into a store and was greeted by the clerk in Setswana (the predominant language in the township), then Afrikaans (most whites in the nearby area speak Afrikaans), and then finally we settled into English.  In a gas station I heard the Tswana speaking attendant and a Xhosa speaking driver switch into Zulu.  This kind of linguistic dance is very typical as strangers search for a common language.  Most people here speak 3-6 languages, so eventually something works.  As a pretty much one-language guy I am somewhat of an anomaly in this country.  Everyone is politely surprised.

A big piece of the anti-apartheid movement was the right to be instructed in one's mother tongue.  Which is interesting, because that is a right that is expressly denied to Spanish speaking students in the U.S., even in communities where Spanish is the predominant language.  In an increasingly connected world I wonder if there is not a critical polyglot* component of democracy that we have overlooked.

*Polyglot - knowing or using several languages.