A lecturer and poet at Shanocar Training Institute in Kempton Park, Tinaishe Carl (30), wrote a poem in honour of Hector Peterson’s death, to commemorate the protest which resulted in a wave of protests across the country, known as the Soweto uprising of 1976.
The poem is named June 16, to celebrate Youth Day:
At the hub of the winter peak;
The cold front blew mercilessly across the ground,
Numb but determined to speak out,
They trickled from their homes
In no time over 20 000 students converged.
The march was initially peaceful,
As innocence filled and endured the dust
Armed solely with resolute mind;
Vulnerable yet determined and purposeful.
Revamped and eager to end an unjust system.
In a splash, yellow vans took over the spotlight,
Tanks roared; an impending massacre was inevitable.
Their command was to destroy the juvenile terrorists.
A memento of the havoc prior to the Rivonia trial!
Heavy arms, tear gas and live ammunition fired,
Commotion and a deafening din embraced,
Ferocious Alsatians; bloodthirsty, they woofed
And ready to pounce on the blameless souls.
Like troubled ants displaced from the colony
The innocent children scuttled.
Blood oozed from his mouth and ears,
Young Hector was killed during commotion,
Hit by a bullet he huffed in pain,
carried to safety but to no avail,
A true hero and son of our liberation
Young Pieterson died a tender thirteen.
Brutality was exposed;
A new wave of resistance was born,
Immune to sjamboks and rejuvenated,
prepared to die and save the masses.
– T.C Carl
