Today is Youth Day in South Africa! June 16th is a Public Holiday in South Africa, known as Youth Day, commemorating the start of the Soweto Riots of 1976, sparked off by a government edict that all instruction in black schools would be held in Afrikaans.
The riots began when Hector Petierson, a black school child, was shot by the police in Soweto near Johannesburg during a peaceful process march. The incident brought attention to the brutalities of Apartheid inside and outside of South Africa. The Soweto Riots ended in the death of 700 people mostly youth.
The purpose of Youth Day is to honor the youth of South Africa and to emphasize that the Soweto Riots should be remembered but not repeated.
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