Using your own language as a form of resistance
The case of South Africa, 1976
Hi all,
Thank you for joining me for this week’s song, Soweto Blues, written by Hugh Masekela and sung by Miriam Makeba.
If you’d like to hear the song before you read the background, I’ve included a YouTube video below the article.
Below, you’ll find my interpretation of the lyrics. I’ve written the lyrics in italics. As with most everything, there are many ways to interpret things. I invite you to leave a question or comment at the end.
For Japanese students, vocabulary words in bold are provided in Japanese below.
Background and Song
(641 words)
In 1948, the Nationalist Party won the elections in South Africa. It started a reform of the “Bantu Educational system” (Bantu has a derogatory meaning) in 1949. It was set up as part of the apartheid system to keep Africans in the role of servant and laborer. The Bantu Education Act made school funds related to taxes paid. This resulted in less spending for black children. By 1959, black students were no longer allowed to attend white universities.
1960s, the government saw a need for trained African workers and increased the amount spent on schools, although far less than for white schools. Most black teachers did not graduate from high school. There was one teacher for 58 students.
In 1972, businesses put pressure on the government to improve education because they needed workers with better training. The government built 40 new schools in Soweto (SOuth-WEstern-TOwnships, just outside Johannesburg, South Africa). School enrollment increased, but there was still a shortage of classrooms and qualified teachers.
In 1975, the Bantu Education Department declared that Afrikaans* and English be used in education because “the education of a Black child is being paid for by the White population… therefore the Secretary for Bantu Education has the responsibility of satisfying the English and Afrikaans-speaking people” (Soweto youth uprising). No other languages would be acceptable. Afrikaans was seen as the language of the oppressor. The children got a letter from the master / It said: no more Xhosa, Sotho, no more Zulu.
Refusing to comply, they sent an answer…
On June 16th, 1976, children went to their schools as usual. For high school students, it was exam time. They were afraid that, if the exams were in Afrikaans, they might not pass. Many students planned to march peacefully to Orlando Stadium. They sang as they walked and carried signs protesting the Afrikaans policy. Along the way, they came to a police barricade. That’s when the policemen came to the rescue. A policeman threw a can of tear gas, and the children started to run away. Shots were fired, and some of the children were hit. Children were flying / bullets dying / The mothers screaming and crying. Over 200 were killed and many more injured.
The chaos continued the next day with police shooting at anyone who made the sign of the fist. This made the children angrier. Fires were set, workers refused to go to work. White students also went into the streets to protest the killing of schoolchildren.
The fathers were working in the cities
The evening news brought out all the publicity:
“Just a little atrocity, deep in the city”
The idea of a “little” atrocity highlights with irony the horror of this crime. It also shows how the government in power downplayed it.
Benikuphi ma madoda (where were the men)
Abantwana beshaywa (when the children were throwing stones)
Ngezimbokodo Mabedubula abantwana (when the children were being shot)
Benikhupi na (where were you?)
The use of African language in the song is showing resistance to the rules.
There was a full moon on the golden city
Looking at the door was the man without pity (meaning the police)
Accusing everyone of conspiracy
Tightening the curfew, charging people with walking
Yes, the border is where he was awaiting
Waiting for the children, frightened and running
The white media showed this tragedy as being caused by blacks themselves, but the people knew that the police were the cause of the violence. Soweto blues - they are killing all the children / without any publicity / oh, they are finishing the nation / while calling it black on black / but everybody knows they are behind it
The Soweto uprising became a symbol of the fight to end apartheid in South Africa. Apartheid ended in 1994 with the first democratic elections which resulted in the Government of National Unity with Nelson Mandela as president.
VOCABULARY
reform 改革
derogatory 軽蔑的
apartheid system アパルトヘイト体制
enrollment 在籍
shortage 不足
qualified 資格
satisfying 満足する
acceptable 許容
oppressor 圧制者
tear gas 催涙ガス
fist 拳
atrocity 残虐行為
downplayed 軽視
resistance 抵抗
conspiracy 陰謀
curfew 夜間外出禁止令
I was not able to add subtitles to the video. The complete lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Miriam-makeba-soweto-blues-lyrics
NOTES
*Afrikaans: language (from 17th-century Dutch) developed by colonists from Netherlands, Germany, and France. Languages that are native to South Africa are Xhosa, Sotho, and Zulu, among others.
SOURCES
The June 16 Soweto youth uprising. South African History Online. https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/june-16-soweto-youth-uprising