So many little details and so many things that have happened before this day… I’ll try my best to give a summary of just a fraction of it. It's a piece of history that helps to explain a little bit about the present. I am providing facts about the history... but I want to be honest... this was hard for me to read about. Although I see a lot of hope in my everyday life here in South Africa, I live in a place where there are no white people...there are no coloureds... and there are only a few Indians who live outside the village, but who own shops and commute to Metz each day to run them. I live in a place where people are identified by their color... where the words Black, Coloured, Indian, and White are used to describe people. I live in a place where my host mother has asked me if in America, the blacks live in villages, too. I live in a place where people want to talk to me because I'm white. Where people don't want to talk to me because I'm white. Where most people who aren't from around here, who don't know me, are always taken aback when they hear that this is where I stay. In some ways, I think things are getting better... but that doesn't make my heart hurt any less when I think about all the people I love here and the history of their country.
The beginnings….
The Bantu Education Act of 1953 was a law which enforced the separation of races in all educational institutions in South Africa. Whites, Blacks, Indians, and Coloureds were all sent to separate schools.
The introduction of the act led to the government greatly reducing funding and aid to schools serving black South Africans, black teachers’ salaries were very low, many black teachers weren’t properly trained, and the funding the black schools were getting was coming from the taxes paid by black South Africans… many who were poor. For South Africa’s white students, education was mandatory, of high standards and FREE. They had teachers who were properly trained and buildings that were in good shape. For Blacks, Indians, and Coloured students school was not free and if education was available, it was at times held in buildings without electricity, plumbing, and access to water. According to the Wikipedia article on the Soweto riots, in the 1970's the per capita governmental spending on black education was one-tenth of the spending on white. There was a VERY uneven distribution of resources in black (and other non-white) and white schools. Within the National Party (white government party) it was a common belief that there was no need to provide good education to people who would never be able to use it. Afrikaans would be a good language to know when working on the farms, higher level math wouldn't be needed because no job a Black or Non-White would get would require such skills.
On the morning of 16 June 1976, thousands (I’ve heard 20,000 is a good estimate) of black students marched through Soweto (SouthWestTownships, outside Jo’Burg) protesting the use of Afrikaans in their schools. The “Afrikaans Medium Decree of 1974” forced black schools to use Afrikaans for math, arithmetic, and social studies, English for the sciences and African languages for religion, music, and culture instruction. The plan was for a peaceful protest. When students walked along their planned route, they came upon police barricades, so they switched their course…. and eventually ended up near Orlando High School (Orlando is a section of Soweto where both Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu have homes). There are different accounts of what actually happened… some say that students/children threw stones and provoked the police, while most of the students marched peacefully.… some say that a few police officers opened fire when they saw that they were surrounded by students. Whatever happened resulted in chaos. Tear gas was thrown, shots were fired, there was looting, people were wounded and killed.
Hector Pieterson, a 12 year old boy, was one of the first students to be killed. To this day a photograph of him being carried down the street by one of the other protesters, with his sister wailing as she walked next to them, is well known and a reminder.
There are varying accounts of how many actually died and were wounded that day, I’ve heard estimations as high as 566 school children were killed, while over 1,000 men, women, and children were wounded.
The events on 16 June were just the beginning of other protests, riots, and strikes by South Africans of all colors and backgrounds throughout the year.
You can read more here
In Metz, I went to church with my family and took pictures of the celebration they threw for all the kids. Everyone was dressed up, there was singing, dancing, and lots of praying....
Everyone at church listening to the sermon. 
Here's the pastor and the lady who was speaking for the day. They sat at a table in the very front.
About a dozen plates full of Simba's, Marie Biscuits, and sweets were passed around for everyone to snack on before the kids got their presents, took pictures, and we cut into the cake!
Here are all the kids lined up to get their treats. They're all dressed up in the traditional church uniform... white shirt and black pants or skirt.
Each kid received a bag of Simba's, their very own tin cup, an apple, and a sucker. AND they got their picture taken by Mmapula.
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