ANALYSIS 1
A YOUNG MANS THOUGHTS BEFORE JUNE THE 16TH
FHAZEL JOHANNESSE (1956)
MORE ABOUT THE POET
● FHAZEL JOHENNESSE was born in 1956 and lives in Johannesburg.
● His father was killed in a car accident when he was a young boy. His mother, who
had converted to Islam when she had married, converted back to Christianity.
This caused tension and a rift between his immediate family and his father's
Muslim family.
● He wrote poetry in the 1970s and 1980s. He has not published poetry since then
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
● Black students in Soweto protested against the Afrikaans Medium Decree of
1974 which forced all black schools to use Afrikaans and English in a 50-50 mix
as languages of instruction.
● A 1972 poll had found that 98% of young Sowetans did not want to be taught in
Afrikaans.
● On the morning of June 16, 1976, thousands of black students walked from their
schools to Orlando Stadium to protest against having to learn through Afrikaans
in school.
● Many students who later participated in the protest arrived at school that
morning without prior knowledge of the protest, yet agreed to become involved.
● The protest was intended to be peaceful and had been carefully 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
emphasized good discipline and peaceful action.
, ● The students began the march only to find out that police had barricaded the
road along their intended route. The leader of the action committee asked the
crowd not to provoke the police and the march continued on another route,
eventually ending up near Orlando High School.
● The crowd of between 3,000 and 10,000 students made their way towards the
area of the school. The violence escalated as the students panicked; bottle stores
and beer halls were targeted.
● The violence abated by nightfall.
● Police vans and armoured vehicles patrolled the streets throughout the night.
Emergency clinics were swamped with injured and bloody children.
● It is not known how many injured children sustained bullet wounds because
doctors refused to collect such details for fear that police would target the
families of such children. Emotions ran high after the massacre on June 16.
● Hostility between students and the police was intense, with officers shooting at
random and more people joining the protesters.
● The accounts of how many people died vary from 200 to 600. The number of
wounded was estimated to be over a thousand men, women, and children.
A YOUNG MANS THOUGHTS BEFORE JUNE THE 16TH
FHAZEL JOHANNESSE (1956)
MORE ABOUT THE POET
● FHAZEL JOHENNESSE was born in 1956 and lives in Johannesburg.
● His father was killed in a car accident when he was a young boy. His mother, who
had converted to Islam when she had married, converted back to Christianity.
This caused tension and a rift between his immediate family and his father's
Muslim family.
● He wrote poetry in the 1970s and 1980s. He has not published poetry since then
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
● Black students in Soweto protested against the Afrikaans Medium Decree of
1974 which forced all black schools to use Afrikaans and English in a 50-50 mix
as languages of instruction.
● A 1972 poll had found that 98% of young Sowetans did not want to be taught in
Afrikaans.
● On the morning of June 16, 1976, thousands of black students walked from their
schools to Orlando Stadium to protest against having to learn through Afrikaans
in school.
● Many students who later participated in the protest arrived at school that
morning without prior knowledge of the protest, yet agreed to become involved.
● The protest was intended to be peaceful and had been carefully 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
emphasized good discipline and peaceful action.
, ● The students began the march only to find out that police had barricaded the
road along their intended route. The leader of the action committee asked the
crowd not to provoke the police and the march continued on another route,
eventually ending up near Orlando High School.
● The crowd of between 3,000 and 10,000 students made their way towards the
area of the school. The violence escalated as the students panicked; bottle stores
and beer halls were targeted.
● The violence abated by nightfall.
● Police vans and armoured vehicles patrolled the streets throughout the night.
Emergency clinics were swamped with injured and bloody children.
● It is not known how many injured children sustained bullet wounds because
doctors refused to collect such details for fear that police would target the
families of such children. Emotions ran high after the massacre on June 16.
● Hostility between students and the police was intense, with officers shooting at
random and more people joining the protesters.
● The accounts of how many people died vary from 200 to 600. The number of
wounded was estimated to be over a thousand men, women, and children.
