索维托起义

起义原因

当时南非的黑人被歧视，当局又实行种族隔离政策。最主要的是南非政府强制在黑人学校推行南非荷兰语教育。

影响

索维托起义和其他南非的屠杀所造成的流血事件，引起国际社会的关注，因而引发对南非的制裁措施，迫使南非结束其种族隔离政策。

The Soweto uprising, also known as the Soweto riots or the Soweto rebellion, was a series of demonstrations and protests led by black school children in South Africa during apartheid that began on the morning of 16 June 1976.

Students from various schools began to protest in the streets of the Soweto township in response to the introduction of Afrikaans, considered by many black South Africans as the "language of the oppressor", as the medium of instruction in black schools. It is estimated that 20,000 students took part in the protests. They were met with fierce police brutality, and many were shot and killed. 176 pupils had been killed in Soweto by the end of June 16. The uprising sparked unrest throughout South Africa, with 575 deaths from violence by the end of February 1977. The riots were a key moment in the fight against apartheid as it sparked renewed opposition against apartheid in South Africa both domestically and internationally. In remembrance of these events, 16 June is a public holiday in South Africa, named Youth Day. Internationally, 16 June is known as The Day of the African Child.

Causes

Black South African high school students in Soweto protested against the Afrikaans Medium Decree of 1974, which forced all black schools to use Afrikaans and English in equal terms as languages of instruction. The association of Afrikaans with apartheid prompted black South Africans to prefer English. Even the Bantustan regimes chose English and an indigenous African language as official languages. In addition, English was gaining prominence as the language most often used in commerce and industry. The 1974 decree was intended to force the reverse of the decline of Afrikaans among black Africans. The Afrikaner-dominated government used the clause of the 1909 Union of South Africa Act that recognised only English and Dutch, the latter being replaced by Afrikaans in 1925, as official languages as its pretext.……

Uprising

On the morning of 16 June 1976, between 3,000 and 20,000 black students walked from their schools to Orlando Stadium for a rally to protest having to learn in Afrikaans in school. Many students who later participated in the protest arrived at schools that morning without prior knowledge of the protest but agreed to become involved. This meant many parents were not aware of the intended action. The protest was planned by the Soweto Students' Representative Council's (SSRC) Action Committee, with support from the wider Black Consciousness Movement. Teachers in Soweto also supported the march after the Action Committee emphasised good discipline and peaceful actions.

At roughly 08h00, Tsietsi Mashinini led students from Morris Isaacson High School to join up with others who walked from Naledi High School. The students began the march, only to find out that police had barricaded the road along their intended route.……

Casualties and aftermath

The number of people who died in the massacre on June 16 is usually given as 176. The original government figure claimed only 23 students were killed, with the number of wounded estimated to be more than 1,000 people. Black students also killed two white people during the uprising, one of them was Melville Edelstein.

The clashes occurred while the South African government was being forced to "transform" apartheid in international eyes towards a more "benign" form. In October 1976, Transkei, the first Bantustan, was proclaimed "independent" by the government. That attempt to showcase supposed South African "commitment" to self-determination backfired, however, since Transkei was internationally derided as a puppet state.

Many white South Africans were outraged at the government's actions in Soweto.……