Group    From 16/6/1976  To 16/6/1976

Soweto children killed in 1976

Categories: Children, Tragedy

Countries: South Africa

Soweto is a township of Johannesburg, South Africa. At least 176 people were killed during a protest about the introduction of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in local schools. Of these, 116 were children.

This photograph, taken by Sam Nzima (1934-2018) shows the mortally wounded Hector Pieterson (1963-1976) being carried by Mbuyisa Makhubo (anti-Apartheid activist and Soweto resident) while Pieterson’s sister, Antoinette Sithole (aged 17), runs beside to them.

Pieterson was driven to a clinic in Nzima’s car but he was already dead. Afterwards Makhubo was harassed by the police and went into hiding.  His family lost all contact with him. Nzima also suffered harassment and temporarily went into hiding.

All information from Wikipedia. Also Time have an excellent 12 minute video about the event and the photograph. 

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Soweto children killed in 1976

Commemorated ati

Soweto children

This sculpture was inspired by a widely-circulated and influential news photo...

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Other Subjects

Edward Smith

Edward Smith

Edward Smith is the 3rd on the right of the seven boys sitting in the photograph of the scout troop. His birth was registered in the 1st quarter of 1901 in the Lambeth registration district. As a...

Person, Children, Community / Clubs, Tragedy

2 memorials
Billy Bunter

Billy Bunter

Character in a series of stories set in Greyfriars School, originally published in the boys weekly story magazine 'The Magnet'.

Fiction, Children, Fictional

1 memorial
Percy Baden Powell Huxford

Percy Baden Powell Huxford

Percy Baden Powell Huxford is the 2nd from the right of the seven boys sitting in the photograph of the scout troop. He was born on 9 May 1900, in Walworth, one of at least ten children of Henry W...

Person, Children, Community / Clubs, Tragedy

2 memorials
Alfred Joseph Walter Sims

Alfred Joseph Walter Sims

Drowned in the 1898 HMS Albion disaster, aged 6. Buried in grave 3 at the memorial in East London Cemetery.

Person, Children, Tragedy

1 memorial
Joy Harman

Joy Harman

One of the 11 "children of England" present on 7th July 1933 when The Princess Royal laid a foundation stone for a nurses home for the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.

Person, Children

1 memorial