Youth Day During South Africa's World Cup

It was 34 years ago today that black students protested the apartheid policy of teaching classes in the Afrikaans language. The riots that day marked the beginning of the Soweto uprising, which in addition to drawing the attention of the world helped put the African National Congress (party of both Nelson Mandela and the current president, Jacob Zuma) in a leadership role in the struggle against apartheid, ending white rule within a generation.

The boy being carried in the photo to the left was killed by a police bullet that day. The Hector Pieterson Museum, which commemorates him and the struggle, is a moving and essential visit if you are in Johannesburg.

So it was appropriate that among other events to mark the day the South African soccer team played their second World Cup match this evening.  Here is a video with Graeme Addison, a South African journalist who was at the scene on June 16, 1976.