Hector Pieterson

Before leaving Johannesburg, we went to the Hector Pieterson memorial. It is a memorial in honor of Hector Pieterson, a 13 year old boy who was killed in an uprising in Soweto by school children on June 16, 1976. They were protesting because in addition to all the existing educational laws that were meant to keep Africans down, they added Afrikaans as a subject. This was the language of the oppressor, something that wasn't used anywhere but South Africa, not the language used in Universities, and just yet another means by which to fail students in schools. Hector Pieterson was crossing the street when he got shot, as the police had already started shooting. This picture is the famous picture taken by an international photographer right after he was shot. The woman in the picture is Hector's sister, Antoinette.

Another part of the story is that the man, Mbuyisa Makhubu, who picked up Hector after he was shot was then targeted as an ANC supporter by the government, and fled the country. He has never been found since, and his family is still looking for him.

We had the incredible opportunity of speaking with Antoinette at the museum. We asked her about the reconciliation process. She spoke about how, with the TRC, they had the opportunity of trying to find out who had killed her brother, and how she didn't want to because it would only make it harder to move on. At one point they had to start coping with It as if he died an ordinary death in order to deal with their grief. She was still alive, so she had to find some way to be positive and keep living her life.

She spoke about how though this memorial was in his name, Hector was no different than many of the other victims of the struggle. Many people died, many people suffered. In the memorial there were stories of others that were killed during the Soweto Uprisings, including an 8 year old girl, Lilith Mitni, and a white man Dr. L M. Edelstein who had done much social work in Soweto who was pulled out of his car and killed.

She said that this was a site of reconciliation, though some people may struggle in seeing how memorializing such a tragic event was something that was in the spirit of reconciliation. Ouma made an interesting point of reconciliation, as challenging as it could be normally, would only be that much more difficult in the case of people like Mbuyisa Makhubu, when they just disappeared without closure. That was one of the goals of the TRC, to track down missing persons and have burials for closure, but of course, as Antoinette spoke to, the TRC was able to serve some people's needs but definitely not everyone's.

It was amazing to see Antoinette's attitude towards reconciliation, her incredible hope. She many times spoke of how one HAD to have a positive outlook to even be able to keep living life, to move forward. She also mentioned many times that she was not the only one, the whole country had been through this. It would not do to teach their children to then hate even more, they had to move forward. Its amazing what some people can handle when they have no other choice.