It’s 50 years since the Soweto uprising in South Africa. On 16 June 1976, tens of thousands of young black South Africans protested against being taught in the Afrikaans language (alongside English) at school.
At the time, under apartheid laws, language, ethnicity and race were all treated as characteristics that defined identity and belonging. Geographic settlement (the artificial system of homelands) added another layer of ethnolinguistic affiliation.
