EVENT INFORMATION

16
June
1976

School students rise against apartheid language policy in Soweto

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Organization history 📅 16 June 1976 📍 South Africa

On 16 June thousands of Black students marched against the requirement that Afrikaans be used as a medium of instruction in African schools. The action was organised by student networks, including the South African Students Movement Action Committee, which became the Soweto Students Representative Council. Police fired on demonstrators; the uprising spread across the country. Student agency and Black Consciousness politics shaped the protest. Accounts differ on the influence of underground ANC and PAC networks, so this entry does not present the uprising as an ANC-directed action.

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People in this event

Soweto Students Representative Council

South African Students Movement

students

Black Consciousness organisations

Organizations in this Event

African National Congress