2006年VOA标准英语-South Africa Marks 30th Anniversary of Anti-Apa

By Rowan Reid
Soweto
14 June 2006

Roughly 30 years ago, young black South Africans took to the streets of Soweto in a mass protest against the government's plan to make Afrikaans the teaching language in schools across the country.  The event that became known as the Soweto Uprising, was a pivotal moment in the eventual¹ downfall of the white minority government.

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School children re-enact 27th anniversary of Soweto uprising including a boy portraying² fatally wounded Hector Peterson (file photo)   
  

On the morning of June 16, 1976, 13-year-old Hector Petersen joined his sister and close to 20,000 other school students in a march through Soweto to protest the introduction of Afrikaans as the main medium of teaching, a language the black majority refused to learn.

After three months of passive resistance by parents and teachers, the students took matters into their own hands, as Petersen's sister Antoinette Sithole explains.

"My principal was much older and he said, 'my children are not going anywhere this is my school and no one can tell me what to do,'" said Ms. Sithole.  "And the students replied 'No, time or no time, I say old man this is our time you had your chance this is our chance.' So we just took out our placards and followed the march, then we sang in the streets of Soweto with pride holding our placards very high, you know so everybody who was there knew what he was doing or she was doing, because we felt this was right; yes we knew we were oppressed but coming to education no, that's enough, that's enough. Here we are going to put things right."

But when the students were confronted by police, the peaceful demonstration³ turned ugly.

"There was a shot," she recalled.  "We were not used to shots unless you see them or hear them in the movies, so we just run amok in confusion hiding ourselves in the nearby houses and police cars were riding in high speed and dogs were barking. You know it was such confusion and as soon as we hear it is calm now we emerge from our hiding places."

When she emerged, Antoinette Sithole found Mbuyisa Makhubo carrying her young brother.  Within hours the image of the dying boy's body being carried through the streets, and his 17-year-old sister running, hysterically⁴, alongside had been wired around the world.  Hector Peterson was the first child officially killed in the struggle against apartheid and he came to represent what is now simply known in South Africa as June 16.

Protests over the education system spread and soon there were hundreds of thousands of school students protesting and rioting against the police. In the end the government was forced to withdraw its decision to enforce Afrikaans language instruction in black schools, but not before more than 100 children had been killed and thousands more injured.

Morris Isaacson high school in Soweto, which was one of the hotbeds of the protest, lost a number of students in the riots. Current Principal Elias Mashile, says the effects of those protests are still evident in today's school system.

"We have got one educational system in South Africa. We know before that we had different I think four types of educational system, so it's because of that," he said.

This was the first time the Apartheid government had bowed to mass protest and it provided inspiration for black South Africans, particularly the youth, at a time when the struggle was at a low ebb⁵.

Rose Madela from Soweto was one of the school students who joined the protests after June 16. She says the success of the campaign against Afrikaans inspired her and her friends to rise up against other government restrictions⁶.

"It make more people understand what is the struggle, so we must fight for our rights in South Africa," she said.

Xolani Meyer a current student at Morris Isaacson says the sacrifices of the youth of 1976 and those that followed inspire him and his friends to make the most of their opportunities.

"We have to open doors which they did open for us into learning, then achieving dreams which they never achieved and a good eyesight of saying thanks guys," he said.

And while Friday will be the anniversary of her brother's death, Antoinette Sithole says she will not mourn. Rather, she says, she will celebrate the achievements brought by the struggle in which he died.

"I don't regret it, instead today it motivates me. Obviously we know people die in any form but usually we don't stay at the corner want people to feel sorry or sympathize with us. We are looking forward; yes it happened, we won't forget, but I think forgiving is that great phase of healing because you are able to move on," she added

1 eventual   

adj.最后的，结局的，最终的

参考例句：

• Several schools face eventual closure.几所学校面临最终关闭。
• Both parties expressed optimism about an eventual solution.双方对问题的最终解决都表示乐观。

2 portraying   

v.画像( portray的现在分词 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• The artist has succeeded in portraying my father to the life. 那位画家把我的父亲画得惟妙惟肖。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Ding Ling was good at portraying figures through careful and refined description of human psychology. 《莎菲女士的日记》是丁玲的成名作，曾引起强烈的社会反响。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

3 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

4 hysterically   

ad. 歇斯底里地

参考例句：

• The children giggled hysterically. 孩子们歇斯底里地傻笑。
• She sobbed hysterically, and her thin body was shaken. 她歇斯底里地抽泣着，她瘦弱的身体哭得直颤抖。

5 ebb   

vi.衰退，减退；n.处于低潮，处于衰退状态

参考例句：

• The flood and ebb tides alternates with each other.涨潮和落潮交替更迭。
• They swam till the tide began to ebb.他们一直游到开始退潮。

6 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制