June 16, 1976

Senzeni na? Sono sethu, ubumyama?Sono sethu yinyaniso?Sibulawayo, Mayibuye i Africa

(What have we done? Our sin is that we are black? Our sin is the truth, They are killing us, Let Africa return)

 

This is the touching hymn that we sang at a chapel service dedicated to the events of June 16, 1976. In the mid 70's the Apartheid government passed the Bantu education act which required the schools in the townships to be taught 50/50 in English and Afrikaans. This was seen as a form of oppression because the natives were no longer allowed to learn in their native tongue and were forced to learn in the language of their oppressors. On June 16, 1976, around 20,000 students in Soweto, a large township outside of Johannesburg, took to the streets in what was supposed to be a peaceful protest. The protests were met by strong government force and around 175 students were killed. The scene has been immortalized by a picture of a young boy named Hector. who had been shot, being carried by a young adult with Hector's sister running beside. Hector was one of those who died in the conflict.

June 16, has become a national holiday and the seminary held a service and lectures in remembrance of the event. In these lectures the seminary students were urged to speak out against current corruption in the government so that it would not take this type of event to happen again to change to system. I thought it was a pretty good message, but after talking to many of the seminarians, they seemed to have a different view. Many said that what he was saying was morally correct, but practically impossible. They told stories of the government giving jobs to those who were speaking out against them, or providing their family with some of the things the desperately need in exchange for their silence. They also said that they would bribe higher up officials in the church to place these ministers in affluent churches, so that when they spoke out against injustices, they appeared as if they were hypocrites. Others even said they wouldn't put it past the government to set up car "accidents" in order to silence critics. It is a very sad state of fear that these seminarians are still in. It is hard to tell how much is truth and how much is carryover from the fear they faced in the apartheid regime. If I had to guess I would say that there is some truth to what they are saying. Prayers are definitely needed for the future ministers of South Africa, while the apartheid may have ended, the struggle is far from over.

 

 On a side note, we are traveling to our new placement up in the foothills of the Drakensburg mountains, with a high likelihood of having no internet. That being the case this may be the last post for over two weeks. Come back to read after that though, because I am sure that I will have a lot of wonderful things to talk about. God Bless.