Hector Pieterson was the 13 year old schoolboy who was killed on June 16th 1976 in the Soweto protest march. Others were killed too but this boy has become, perhaps through the iconic photograph of his blood smeared body being carried away, a particular focus of this uprising. Internationally Soweto came to epitomise the evils of apartheid. On the march people used, like a psalm of lament the sorrowful Senzeni Na. They sang: ‘Isono sethu bubumny ama iamabhuna ayizinja’. ‘What have we done? Our crime is blackness. These white rulers are dogs’. Being taken to this museum by Bishop Steve and Father Edward Sithole is a privilege, albeit a painful one as we are exposed to the frightening abuses of the apartheid era. For instance during the economic downturn of 1975 black schools were starved of funds. For every 644 Rands the Government spent on a white student, 42 Rands were spent on a black student.
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
Hector Pieterson Museum, Soweto
Hector Pieterson was the 13 year old schoolboy who was killed on June 16th 1976 in the Soweto protest march. Others were killed too but this boy has become, perhaps through the iconic photograph of his blood smeared body being carried away, a particular focus of this uprising. Internationally Soweto came to epitomise the evils of apartheid. On the march people used, like a psalm of lament the sorrowful Senzeni Na. They sang: ‘Isono sethu bubumny ama iamabhuna ayizinja’. ‘What have we done? Our crime is blackness. These white rulers are dogs’. Being taken to this museum by Bishop Steve and Father Edward Sithole is a privilege, albeit a painful one as we are exposed to the frightening abuses of the apartheid era. For instance during the economic downturn of 1975 black schools were starved of funds. For every 644 Rands the Government spent on a white student, 42 Rands were spent on a black student.
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