The Soweto Student Uprising of 1976 was a decisive moment in the struggle against apartheid. It marked the expansion of political activism to a new generation of young activists, but beyond that it inscribed the role that young people of subsequent generations could play in their country’s future. Since that momentous time students have held a special place in the collective imaginary of South African history. Drawing on research and writing by leading scholars and prominent activists, Students Must Rise takes Soweto ’76 as its pivot point, but looks at student and youth activism in South Africa more broadly by considering what happened before and beyond the Soweto moment. Early chapters assess the impact of the anti-pass campaigns of the 1950s, of political ideologies like black consciousness as well as of religion and culture in fostering political consciousness and organisation among youth and students in townships and rural areas. Later chapters explore the wide-reaching impact of June 16th itself for student organisation over the next two decades across the country. Two final chapters consider contemporary student-based political movements, including #Rhodes Must Fall and #Fees Must Fall, and historically root these in the long and rich tradition of student activism in South Africa. 2016 marks the 40th anniversary of the 1976 June 16th uprisings. This book rethinks the conventional narrative of youth and student activism in South Africa by placing that most famous of moments – the 1976 students’ uprising in Soweto – in a deeper historical and geographic context.
Table of Content
Introduction: narratives of the student struggle – Anne Heffernan and Noor Nieftagodien
Chapter 1 A brief history of the African Students’ Association – Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu
Chapter 2 Youth and student culture – Riding resistance and imagining the future – Bhekizizwe Peterson
Chapter 3 The role of religion and theology in the organisation of student activists – Ian Macqueen
Chapter 4 Student organisation in Lehurutshe and the impac t of Onkgopotse Abram Tiro – Arianna Lissoni
Chapter 5 The University of the North – A regional and national centre of activism -Anne Heffernan
Chapter 6 Action and fire in Soweto, June 1976 – Sibongile Mkhabela
Chapter 7 What they shot in Alex – Steve Kwena Mokwena
Chapter 8 SASO and Black Consciousness and the shift to congress politics – Saleem Badat
Chapter 9 Youth politics and rural rebellion in Zebediela and other par ts of the “homeland” of Lebowa, 1976–1977 – Sekibakiba Peter Lekgoathi
Chapter 10 My Journey, our journey – Activism at Ongoye University – Makhosazana Xaba
Chapter 11 ‘Let’s begin to par ticipa te fully now in politics’ – Student politics, Mhluzi township, 1970s – Tshepo Moloi
Chapter 12 ‘They would remind you of 1960’ – The emergence of radical student politics in the Vaal Triangle, 1972–1985 – Franziska Rueedi
Chapter 13 The ends of boycott – Premesh Lalu
Chapter 14 Fighting for ‘our little freedoms’ – The evolution of student and youth politics in Phomolong township, Free State – Phindile Kunene
Chapter 15 ‘Every generation has its struggle’ – A brief history of Equal Education, 2008–15 – Brad Brockman
Chapter 16 Contemporary student politics in South Africa – The rise of the black-led student movements of #Rhodes Must Fall and #Fees Must Fall in 2015 – Leigh-Ann Naidoo
About the author
Bhekizizwe Peterson is Professor of African Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. He has been active since the 1970’s in Black cultural practices in South Africa and is the writer and / or producer of internationally acclaimed films He has published extensively on African Literature, Performance and Cultural Studies as well as Black Intellectual Traditions in South Africa.
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