Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- List of Interviewees
- Map
- Chapter One Origins
- Chapter Two A Right To Live In The City
- Chapter Three Place Of Defiance
- Chapter Four Uncertain Times
- Chapter Five Good Times
- Chapter Six Work And Education
- Chapter Seven Inspired By Black Consciousness
- Chapter Eight The Beginning Of The Uprising
- Chapter Nine The Making Of A Middle Class
- Chapter Ten Making A Revolution
- Selected References
- Chapter Eleven Photographic Essay
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
Chapter Ten - Making A Revolution
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 May 2019
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- List of Interviewees
- Map
- Chapter One Origins
- Chapter Two A Right To Live In The City
- Chapter Three Place Of Defiance
- Chapter Four Uncertain Times
- Chapter Five Good Times
- Chapter Six Work And Education
- Chapter Seven Inspired By Black Consciousness
- Chapter Eight The Beginning Of The Uprising
- Chapter Nine The Making Of A Middle Class
- Chapter Ten Making A Revolution
- Selected References
- Chapter Eleven Photographic Essay
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
Summary
State repression, and the ensuing lull, gave the impression that the movement sparked by the student uprising had been quelled. However, the quiescence that followed the banning of organisations in 1977 represented a mere pause in the emergence of a formidable anti-apartheid movement. The events of 1976 politicised thousands of young people across the country who came to represent a new generation of committed activists that would constitute the backbone of the struggle.
Although Thami Zitha was still in primary school in 1976, and so was not directly involved in the struggles, the uprising had a major influence on his life. For him, as for many of his generation, the Soweto uprising was the critical moment of his political awakening.
In my family they knew that I liked debating and questioning things. I used to challenge my grandmother on Christianity. My grandmother used to say, no, no, Thamsanqa, don't worry, andilikholwa mara difuna madishona diyophumela ecaweni [I'm not a Christian but when I die I want my funeral to be held in church]. Ja, that's it. I'm an African. At that time I didn't know much. But I had a problem, challenging white supremacy. How did they become superior? By then I started to learn that this is my country and it was colonised, and what, what … and all those things. I started to make sense of the situation. Because I had learnt about Jan van Riebeeck at school and all that … so I was trying to find a way.
Thami Zitha was one of a new layer of youth who were becoming committed to struggle, but were still desperately searching for political answers to their many questions about apartheid, past struggles and the way forward. They found some of the answers among an older generation of political activists, some of whom were stalwarts of the liberation movements and had been imprisoned in the major crackdown in the early 1960s. Joe Gqabi, for example, spent more than a decade on Robben Island and on his return to Soweto he began to educate young people and draw them into an ANC network. Thami Zitha's political mentor was Peter Raboroko, one of the leaders of the Pan African Congress, the PAC.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Orlando West, SowetoAn illustrated history, pp. 87 - 98Publisher: Wits University PressPrint publication year: 2012