Students Must Rise: Youth Struggle in South Africa Before and Beyond Soweto ’76, edited by Anne Heffernan and Noor Nieftagodien:(Wits University Press)

Students Must Rise: Youth struggle from before the Soweto Uprising to Fees Must Fall 

The Soweto Student Uprising of 1976 was a decisive moment in the struggle against apartheid. It marked the expansion of political activism to a new generation of young activists, but beyond that it inscribed the role that young people of subsequent generations could play in their country’s future. Since that momentous time students have held a special place in the collective imaginary of South African history.

Drawing on research and writing by leading scholars and prominent activists, Students Must Rise takes Soweto ’76 as its pivot point, but looks at student and youth activism in South Africa more broadly by considering what happened before and beyond the Soweto moment. Early chapters assess the impact of the anti-pass campaigns of the 1950s, of political ideologies like Black Consciousness as well as of religion and culture in fostering political consciousness and organisation among youth and students in townships and rural areas.

Later chapters explore the wide-reaching impact of June 16th itself for student organisation over the next two decades across the country. Two final chapters consider contemporary student-based political movements, including #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall, and historically root these in the long and rich tradition of student activism in South Africa.

2016 marks the 40th anniversary of the 1976 June 16th uprisings. This book rethinks the conventional narrative of youth and student activism in South Africa by placing that most famous of moments – the 1976 students’ uprising in Soweto – in a deeper historical and geographic context.

About the editors

Anne Heffernan is a post-doctoral researcher in the History Workshop at Wits and has a particular interest in the history of political activism among students in South Africa.

Noor Nieftagodien is the South African Research Chair in Local Histories, Present Realities, and is the Head of the History Workshop at Wits. He has published widely on popular insurgent struggles, public history, and youth politics. With Philip Bonner he has published books on the history of Alexandra (Wits Press: 2008) and Kathorus, and with Sally Gaule he published a history of Orlando West (Wits Press: 2012)

Contents

Introduction by Anne Heffernan and Noor Nieftagodien
Chapter 1: A brief history of the African Student Association by Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu
Chapter 2: Youth and student culture: Riding resistance and Imagining the future by Bhekizizwe Peterson
Chapter 3: The role of religion and theology in the organisation of student activists by Ian Macqueen
Chapter 4: Student organisation in Lehurutshe and the impact of Ongkopotse Tiro by Arianna Lissoni
Chapter 5: The University of the North, a regional and national centre of activism by Anne Heffernan
Chapter 6: Action and fire in Soweto, June 1976 by Sibongile Mkhabela
Chapter 7: What they shot in Alex by Steve Kwena Mokwena
Chapter 8: SASO and Black Consciousness, and the shift to Congress politics by Saleem Badat
Chapter 9: Youth politics and rural rebellion in Zebediela and other parts of the “homeland” of Lebowa, 1976-1977
by Sekibakiba Lekgoathi
Chapter 10: My journey, our journey: Activism at Ongoye University by Makhosazana Xaba
Chapter 11: “Let’s begin to participate fully in politics”: Student politics in Mhluzi Township, Mpumalanga by Tshepo Moloi
Chapter 12: “They would remind you of 1960″: The emergence of radical student politics in the Vaal triangle 1972-1985
by Franziska Rueedi
Chapter 13: The ends of boycott by Premesh Lalu
Chapter 14: Fighting for “our little freedoms”: The evolution of student and youth politics in Phomolong Township, Free State
by Phindile Kunene
Chapter 15: “Every generation has its struggle”: A brief history of Equal Education (2008-15) by Brad Brockman
Chapter 16: The rise of the black-led student movements of #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall in 2015 by Leigh-Ann Naidoo

Selected Bibliography