Image: Steve Biko By Andile Mngxitama It has been more than 40 years since the Soweto June 16 uprising, but the question “Which of the three main liberation movements was behind the uprising?” is highly contested. Recently, we saw increasing social- media-driven attempts to credit the PAC as the mastermind of the event.The development follows …
Image: Khotso Seatlholo (left) and Tsietsi Mashinini (right), leaders of the June 16 uprising Andile Mngxitama I once wrote a coloumn in the Sowetan under the heading “the kwaitofication of June 16”. The ANC government governs through erasure of history and thought. That the children of Soweto do not know the names Tsietsi Mashinini and …
Leaders of the June16, 1976 Soweto Uprising, Tsietsi Mashinini and Khotso Seatlholo, in Gaborone (Botwana) in 1977. Image credit: SAHO By Andile Mngxitama Four year ago i wrote: “i know for a fact that Tsietsi Mashinini was murdered at least two weeks before he was due back in SA. i lived with Khotso Seatlholo and …
Khotso Seatlholo (left), Tsietsi Mashinini (right) By Andile Mngxitama Tsietsi Mashinini, the chairperson of the Soweto Students’ Representative Council (SSRC), and his deputy Khotso Seatlholo were members of the South African Students’ Movement (SASM). Both the SSRC and SASM were among the 18 Black Consciousness-affiliated organisations banned on 19 October 1977. After the June 16 …
Onkgopotse Abram Tiro. Gallo Images By Andile Mngxitama Exactly 46 years ago today in Botswana, a bomb went off and took the life of our hero and brother Onkgopotse Abram Tiro. The bomb was sent by the apartheid government on behalf of the white community as a whole. Tiro like Steve Biko was a liberation …
Onkgopotse Abram Tiro. Image credit: SAHO By Andile Mngxitama I think of Tiro as a brother of Steve Biko. Tiro and Biko, Brothers in Black Consciousness (BC). These guys rhythm as one. I read how Tiro got impatient with the Keith Mokoape group. After their resolution was defeated by Biko’s powerful intervention, the Keith group …
From Left to Right: Khotso Seatlholo and Tsietsi Mashinini, both leaders of the June 16 youth rebellion. By Andile Mngxitama This piece was written as a tribute to Khotso Seatlholo soon after he had passed on following a short illness. It is republished 15 years after his death. Khotso was the second in command in the …
By BO Staff Writer Black Opinion republishes this short and incomplete biography of one of the leaders of the June 16, Black Power uprising. The young heroes of the uprising, inspired by the Black Consciousness movement, had the country on standstill and fought diligently for liberation of black people. We republish this short biography in …