Youth Day

'Another Public Holiday?!'

After living in SA for nearly 2 years this was my first thought leading into the long weekend.

Having studied the apartheid years as part of my Sports Studies A Level course, this South African history module focused on the effects of apartheid on world wide sport and South African sports teams, therefore my South African History knowledge is not as good as it maybe should be.

I set a side some time this afternoon to read and google and learn about Youth day and now understand why today the Country is awarded a public holiday to remember June 16th 1976.

June 16th 1976 - The Soweto uprising

So today we remember those who walked from their schools, protested and vented their anger in response to the introduction of Afrikaans as the language of delivery in many school subjects.  This was implemented throughout South Africa regardless of locally spoken language and indigenous languages would only be used to deliver religious studies, music and culture.

What started as peaceful protest turned into a bloodbath and 38 years ago many young black South Africans lost their lives fighting for a better education and future.