S Africa marks Soweto uprising
Bafana Bafana have high hopes for Youth Day match against Uruguay in Pretoria.
After a 1-1 drawin the opening match of the World Cup, South Africa’s national football team is hoping to make the country proud when it takes on Uruguay on Youth Day.
After Wednesday’s match in Pretoria, South Africa will face France on June 22 in Bloemfontein.
| special coverage | |
|
“Today’s match provides a very interesting paradox in terms of the revolution of South Africa, fundamentally because in the few days that I have been going to the stadium it has been amazing to see the number of old and young white people and black people sharing the exact same space,” Lebogang Mokwena of South Africa’s Centre for Policy Studies told Al Jazeera.
“Therefore, seeing this process of change that has culminated in defending their ‘vuvuzela’ horns across cultural boundaries – having been able to find these types of commonality and national identity that affirms all of us simultaneously, has been amazing.”
Youth Day celebrates the June 16, 1976, Soweto Uprising,when black students rose up against the educational policies of the former apartheid government and were fired on.
How many demonstrators were killed in the protest is still unclear, but estimates range from 200 to 600 people.
From the scene of that pivotal bloody protest, Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull sent this report.