Hector Pieterson Museum

While in Soweto we visited the Hector Pieterson Museum.  Hector Pieterson was a thirteen year old boy who was shot and killed on June 16, 1976, which marked the beginning of the Soweto Uprising.  On that day, students had organized for a march against the use of Afrikaans as a form of instruction in schools.  Afrikaans was the language forced on blacks by white Afrikaaners.  We had the honor of having Hector's sister, Antoinette, Sithole, tell us what happened that day.  She recollected how her brother tagged along with her out of curiosity.  They got separated and when she saw him across the street she called him over.  He was smiling and she told him to stop because she didn't know what was going on.  People everywhere, she stayed with her brother.  However, they got separated, and when she came back out to the street she couldn't find him.  She noticed a group of people looking at something, but didn't know what.  She waited for her brother, who didn't come.  The first thing she noticed was his shoes, and then she saw his face on the body a man was carrying out of the group of people.  It was Hector; it was her brother.  She shouted and tried to get him help, but he was already dead; shot innocently by police.  The museum tells the story of the Soweto Uprising and is in memory of all those lost.  This picture is outside the museum with Antoinette Sithole.

-Katrina