Neither Settler nor Native: The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities

by Mahmood Mamdani

As for black mobilization, another key episode was the Soweto uprising of 1976. Soweto was a coming of age for black community organizing. On June 16, nearly 20,000 black students gathered in the Johannesburg township of Soweto. Many of the students were high schoolers organized by the South African Students Movement, which was heavily influenced by SASO and the Black Consciousness Movement. The students joined together to protest Bantu education—in particular, a new law requiring that classes be held in Afrikaans. As they marched peacefully through the township, they were confronted by heavily armed police, who opened fire first with teargas and then bullets. The youth had no more than stones to throw at their assailants. Hundreds of protesters were killed. The organizers and marchers inspired a generation of community-based resistance. Everyday people in the townships were radicalized and unleashed more protests. As they did so, they found their way inside the South African prison system, including the prison at Robben Island where Nelson Mandela had been locked up for years.