Soweto Uprising: What happened to my dad?
Listen now
Description
In 1976, the Johannesburg township of Soweto erupted into protest. Students were furious with the government decision to make Afrikaans a language of instruction in South African schools. Afrikaans was associated with apartheid and white rule by many black South Africans, and not everyone could speak it. The protests were met with brutal force by the police, and hundreds of students died in the ensuing gunfire. In the midst of the chaos was Dr Edelstein, a white man involved in various humanitarian causes in the township. Students who had fled the gunfire suddenly turned their anger on him, and he was killed in the street. His daughter Janet was just 12 at the time, and she's spent many years trying to find answers about what happened that day. After the end of apartheid she spoke at South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, telling her father’s story and giving an emotional plea for more information. Now she’s followed in her father's footsteps, and is working to help young people in Soweto. First broadcast 2019. Get in touch: [email protected] Presenter: Mpho Lakaje Producer: Harry Graham (Photo: The Edelstein family. Credit: The Edelstein family)
More Episodes
Dr Karen Nyberg has many talents. She's an engineer and astronaut, but she's also an avid quilter, so when she joined the International Space Station in 2013, she took her sewing kit with her. She created a nine-inch, star-themed quilt square in orbit which inspired over two thousand other...
Published 04/12/22
Published 04/12/22
In the 1990s Terence Smith launched his campaign to run for United States president in drag, shocking voters and the media. His mission was not to win, but instead, to raise awareness about the Aids crisis which was killing his community. Critical of the government's slow response to the...
Published 04/11/22