FYI, the following item from the Johennesburg Sunday Times was seen on AllAfrica.com at http://allafrica.com/stories/200606191107.html . "We need to ask ourselves whether we have accorded the African language its due place in our curriculum, ..." DZO
South Africa: Doing Right By the Heroes of '76 Sunday Times (Johannesburg) http://www.sundaytimes.co.za EDITORIAL June 18, 2006 Posted to the web June 19, 2006 Johannesburg IT IS one of those events that even those who were not there remember well. If you were not in Soweto on June 16 1976, you still heard about it. And if you did not hear it about it immediately, then it surely affected you in one way or another at some point during your life. It was, as the cliché goes, a day that changed the course of South African history, that day on which the nation's young people revolted against inferior education and injustice. After the lull caused by the banning of organisations and the jailing of leaders, things had begun to stir in the late '60s with the rekindling of unionism and student activism. But it was not until June 16 1976 that the simmering anger erupted into a full uprising that effectively continued until the National Party was removed from power. This weekend, as we mark June 16, we pay tribute to those youngsters who were forced by history to become adults on that day. Many lost their lives in the days, weeks and months following June 16. Many more landed up in jail or were forced into exile. While many of that courageous generation today occupy powerful positions, others simply had their lives ruined. So how best do we thank those girls and boys who, armed only with stones, took on a mighty state? Do we put up monuments in their honour? Do we compose heroic poems about their valour? Name public institutions after them and their deeds? Yes, we can and should do all of these. But they will be totally inadequate. The way to honour them is to realise their dream of creating a just and decent society. We need to ask ourselves whether this nation is delivering to its children the quality education that the students of Soweto demanded back then. We need to ask ourselves whether we have accorded the African language its due place in our curriculum, or if it continues to occupy the inferior status it did when white supremacy was the national ideology. The government needs to interrogate its collective conscience and tell us whether the township school is worthy of being called by that name, or whether it is merely the only option for those who cannot afford to bus their children to formerly white institutions. Youth organisations and student formations must say whether they are doing justice to the legacy of the 1976 generation. Are they adequately taking up the causes of today's young people, or have they, too, been swallowed up by the acquisitive culture of post-apartheid South Africa? Are they committed to fighting for the betterment of the lives of South Africans, or have they been consumed by their spirited defence of the generally corrupt? And all of us need to ask ourselves whether we are doing enough to protect our children from HIV/Aids -- a scourge that may render the sacrifices of the 1976 generation futile. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AfricanLanguages/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
