Today, 16 June 2006, marks a VERY IMPORTANT DATE in the history of South Africa and a equally important date in my personal life.
This event which happened thirty years ago in South Africa changed my life for the rest of my life.
And in honor of all those who gave their lives for the Freedom of South Africa and of the TREMENDOUSLY POSITIVE INFLUENCE THAT THEY HAD ON MY LIFE, I give you this article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5085450.stm
S Africa marking Soweto uprising
South Africa is marking 30 years since the Soweto uprising, a student protest pivotal to the apartheid struggle.
President Thabo Mbeki led a march along the route taken on 16 June 1976 by black students fighting a law forcing them to learn in Afrikaans.
Relatives of the children killed when police opened fire cried as wreaths were laid in their memory.
Some 20,000 people have gathered at the FNB stadium where a 21-gun salute welcomed Mr Mbeki ahead of his speech.
"On 16 June that day in 1976, I was on this same road. There was teargas. People screaming, running, and police chasing everybody," said Martin Mhanlanga who brought his niece on the march, AP news agency reports.
In the unrest that followed, hundreds of people died in clashes as an outpouring of black anger spread.
The Soweto uprising and the riots that spread to other township are seen as a milestone in the growth of the movement against white minority rule, which was finally ended in 1994.
'Puff of smoke'
The commemorations have centred on the Hector Peterson memorial, named after the first and youngest student to die.
He was caught on camera as he died in the arms of a fellow student, in a photograph that became iconic in the struggle against white minority rule in South Africa.
His mother Dorothy Molefi and President Mbeki were among those to lay wreaths at the memorial, watched by hundreds of people who observed a minute's silence.
Some relatives welled up with emotion as the crowd sang a Zulu struggle song "Senzeni na", meaning "We are Crying", AP reports.
"I remember it like it was yesterday. That day was a sad, sad day and today for me is a day of joy," 56-year-old Maria Dikeledi told AFP news agency.
But Archbishop Desmond Tutu told the BBC's World Today programme that South Africa had a mixed record since the end of apartheid.
He said the country's impressive stability was threatened by "dehumanising poverty".
"Unless we do something about that quickly, we may find all our achievements are a puff of smoke," he said.
Milestone
In Soweto, red paving stones symbolising spilled blood have been laid along the route the protesters took.
The coloured slabs start at Morris Isaacson High School, where many of the protesting students began their march, and end at Orlando West School where the fateful confrontation with police took place.
The government said that 95 black people had been killed, but unofficial estimates put the number of dead closer to 500.
At the time, Winnie Mandela, the wife of then-imprisoned ANC leader Nelson Mandela, described the protests as "just the beginning".
Domestic and international pressure eventually lead to the release of Mr Mandela in 1990 and the country's first non-racial elections four years later.
Mr Mandela was overwhelmingly elected to become South Africa's first black president.
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I hope that you will all take some time today to learn more about the heroic student uprising that started in Soweto thirty years ago today in South Africa and rededicate yourselves to making a POSITIVE CHANGE in our world.
VIVA Hector Peterson and all those who suffered or died in the struggle for freedom in South Africa!
http://www.46664.com
This event which happened thirty years ago in South Africa changed my life for the rest of my life.
And in honor of all those who gave their lives for the Freedom of South Africa and of the TREMENDOUSLY POSITIVE INFLUENCE THAT THEY HAD ON MY LIFE, I give you this article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5085450.stm
S Africa marking Soweto uprising
South Africa is marking 30 years since the Soweto uprising, a student protest pivotal to the apartheid struggle.
President Thabo Mbeki led a march along the route taken on 16 June 1976 by black students fighting a law forcing them to learn in Afrikaans.
Relatives of the children killed when police opened fire cried as wreaths were laid in their memory.
Some 20,000 people have gathered at the FNB stadium where a 21-gun salute welcomed Mr Mbeki ahead of his speech.
"On 16 June that day in 1976, I was on this same road. There was teargas. People screaming, running, and police chasing everybody," said Martin Mhanlanga who brought his niece on the march, AP news agency reports.
In the unrest that followed, hundreds of people died in clashes as an outpouring of black anger spread.
The Soweto uprising and the riots that spread to other township are seen as a milestone in the growth of the movement against white minority rule, which was finally ended in 1994.
'Puff of smoke'
The commemorations have centred on the Hector Peterson memorial, named after the first and youngest student to die.
He was caught on camera as he died in the arms of a fellow student, in a photograph that became iconic in the struggle against white minority rule in South Africa.
His mother Dorothy Molefi and President Mbeki were among those to lay wreaths at the memorial, watched by hundreds of people who observed a minute's silence.
Some relatives welled up with emotion as the crowd sang a Zulu struggle song "Senzeni na", meaning "We are Crying", AP reports.
"I remember it like it was yesterday. That day was a sad, sad day and today for me is a day of joy," 56-year-old Maria Dikeledi told AFP news agency.
But Archbishop Desmond Tutu told the BBC's World Today programme that South Africa had a mixed record since the end of apartheid.
He said the country's impressive stability was threatened by "dehumanising poverty".
"Unless we do something about that quickly, we may find all our achievements are a puff of smoke," he said.
Milestone
In Soweto, red paving stones symbolising spilled blood have been laid along the route the protesters took.
The coloured slabs start at Morris Isaacson High School, where many of the protesting students began their march, and end at Orlando West School where the fateful confrontation with police took place.
The government said that 95 black people had been killed, but unofficial estimates put the number of dead closer to 500.
At the time, Winnie Mandela, the wife of then-imprisoned ANC leader Nelson Mandela, described the protests as "just the beginning".
Domestic and international pressure eventually lead to the release of Mr Mandela in 1990 and the country's first non-racial elections four years later.
Mr Mandela was overwhelmingly elected to become South Africa's first black president.
------------------------------------------------------
I hope that you will all take some time today to learn more about the heroic student uprising that started in Soweto thirty years ago today in South Africa and rededicate yourselves to making a POSITIVE CHANGE in our world.
VIVA Hector Peterson and all those who suffered or died in the struggle for freedom in South Africa!
http://www.46664.com