One of the most moving experiences for me on my trip to
Johannesburg was when we visited the Hector Pieterson Museum in Soweto.
Hector Pieterson was a victim of racial based killing during a police
outrage against school children. The children at the time were forced to
learn the language of Afrikaans, the opressor language. This "Bantu
Education" caused children to perform extremely poorly in school due to
their lack of resources being black students during Apartheid. The
Museum highlighted several of the struggles black youth faced during
that era. There were short films about black children forced to
participate in plays singing anti-black songs in order to entertain the
Boers or Afrikaaners, which were white colonial descendants. On June
16th, 1976, a peaceful protest was created by township students, all
black. The students marched the streets with signs about rejecting
Afrikaans class in their school systems. This led to a violent police
revolt against the students. The police opened fire and shot several
students, some who were not even participating in the protest but
happened to be out on the streets in the area. One of those children was
Hector Pieterson. The museum was build not only to remember his death,
but the deaths of a disturbing amount of students his age, around 13
years old. Walking through the museum I saw quotes about the incident
and footage from news discussions pertaining to the massacre. But what
hit me most was reading about the children's ages. All were so young.
This museum shows the power of youth and the power of the white
opressor, but better yet the museum highlights the values of the
community affected. Not only was the community of students coming
together to speak out against their oppression but they realized their
potential to end Apartheid. Their efforts will never be forgotten and
my experience visiting the museum is one I will never forget. Upon
leaving the museum I saw the following quote about the boy who carried
Hector out of the bullet storm once dead:
"Mbuyisa is or was my son. But he is not a hero. In
my culture, picking up Hector is not an act of heroism. It was his job
as a brother. If he left him on the ground and somebody saw him jumping
over hector, he would never be able to live here." - Ma'makhubu,
Mbuyisa's mother
This quote shows the power of community and duty to
serving others as brothers and not strangers or neighbors. Another
powerful example of Ubuntu.
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