Word: soweto
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...Just like the old days," muttered a grizzled Zulu elder in Johannesburg's Soweto. Standing in a dusty street one day last week, he recalled with a mixture of admiration and apprehension the legendary days of the 19th century wars against the whites by South Africa's largest and fiercest tribe (see box below). This time, however, the target of the angry Zulus in Soweto was the black militants-the student leaders and other activists who were leading a three-day boycott to prevent Soweto's 250,000-member black labor force from going to work...
...days and nights last week, Zulu impis (war parties), armed with spears, sticks, knives and knobkerries, the traditional Zulu clubs, were on the warpath once again, turning Soweto (pop. 1 million) into a city of terror. Forming an extended battle line in the manner of the Zulu warriors of old, they surged through the township chanting "Bulala! Bulala!" (Kill! Kill!). Thousands of blacks, particularly the young, attempted to flee. Many camped out in front of police stations seeking protection against the marauding Zulus. An African priest described how a 16-year-old schoolboy was chased into his church...
...started early in the week when Soweto's young militants, in an effort to sustain the black demonstrations against racial discrimination, called on all Soweto workers to stay home from their jobs in Johannesburg for three days. With leaflets, with placards, with shouted threats, they warned everyone to support the strike or pay the consequences. "Give our regards to your white masters," one worker on his way to Johannesburg was told. "We'll be waiting for you tonight." On the first day, about 40% of Soweto's work force stayed home...
...striking is risky in recession-ridden South Africa. Black unemployment is running at 20%. Conspicuous among the Soweto residents who refused to strike were the migrant males, many of them Zulu tribesmen, who live in dormitory-like hostels and send most of their earnings to their families in the tribal homelands far away. The migrants were little impressed by either the young activists' efforts to organize political demonstrations or the government's recent concessions to black militancy, like the decision to allow Soweto residents to purchase outright more than half of the township's houses (for about...
Avenged Grievances. Suddenly the battle of Soweto was transformed from a black-white conflict into a fight between blacks-and government officials were not at all displeased. Indeed there were some charges that they helped provoke the change. Several black reporters said they heard police officers exhorting Zulus to "go out and kill" their enemies, but one police chief branded this "an infamous lie." At the least, some Soweto residents said, the police watched from their antiriot Hippo vehicles without taking action as the Zulu warriors scoured the streets and burst into homes in search of what they called "cheeky...