Word: soweto
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...Soweto was a chilling reminder to South African whites that they live as an extraordinarily privileged minority in a society that not only postulates second-class citizenship for blacks, but has codified repression, separatism and inequality into the law of the land−the hated system known as apartheid (apartness, pronounced a-part-hate). The violence was also a sharp blow to the prestige and image of shrewd, burly John Vorster, South Africa's powerful Prime Minister for the past decade...
...most observers agreed, coincidence that black unrest exploded just as Vorster was about to display himself on the world scene as a statesman of segregation. South African black leaders pointed out that they had been warning the Pretoria government for months that unrest in Soweto had the potential of leading to another Sharpeville...
Minor Import. What triggered the rioting was an issue that clearly was of minor import to the government, yet had great symbolic importance in the ghetto. In 1974 the Pretoria Government Education Department ruled that students in Soweto's schools−about 250 of them serve at least 200,000 pupils in triple shifts−must take some subjects in Afrikaans, the Dutch-based language that, along with English, is one of the two official languages for white South Africa. What particularly angered the students was that blacks in tribal areas were allowed to opt for classes in either...
...protest the language decree, groups of high school students last Wednesday attempted to organize a rally at Orlando Stadium, Soweto's main sports arena. As the placard-waving students−perhaps 10,000 strong−approached the stadium, they were blocked by a contingent of black police, led by white officers. Trying to disperse the students, the police used tear gas and then fired into the air. Only then−acting in self-defense, police officials insisted−did the troopers fire directly into the rampaging mob; one 13-year-old black boy was killed and several people were...
...Soweto resident, Langa Skosana, was caught in the crossfire of police bullets and stones hurled by the rioting students. "It was the most terrifying moment of my life," he said later. "The police opened direct fire. It is terrifying to watch a gun being aimed at you. I turned and ran. Had I lain on the ground the students would have trampled...