In this episode of our interview series, our host Lynda Iroulo talks to Prof. Listen to part I of the interview, as Prof. Ndlovu talks about how he experienced the Soweto Youth Uprising in June as a year-old boy, the role of the Afrikaans language in education, and how an initial dissatisfaction led to a historic event.
Sifiso Ndlovu. I was impressed to hear that the uprising by the Soweto youths did not actually begin on June 16, So tell us, when did it all start? Ndlovu: The dominant narrative claims that the Soweto uprisings were spontaneous as if we woke up one day on June 16 and decided to stand up against the oppressive Apartheid regime.
I do understand why that narrative is dominant. It is thought that there must be someone who pushes them from behind and influences them. So you have to come up with an easy and simplistic view that these kids were out of their minds and this was something that just happened out of the blue.
I was about 14 years old then. After using English as a medium of instruction during our first year at secondary school, we were shocked to discover that we now were required to use Afrikaans, which, for us, was really the language of the oppressor. For you at the age of 14, what was it about Afrikaans that let you think you did not want it as a medium of instruction in your school?
Ndlovu: I did primary school in my own mother tongue. So when I went to high school, I was compelled to switch from using my mother tongue isiZulu to English in secondary school. In the second year of secondary school I was compelled to change again and now use Afrikaans. For us, as young as we were, we knew that both languages were imposed on us as languages of the colonizers. But then again, I was 13 years old back then.
