The plan was simple, the march disciplined

The events of the cold morning of June 16 1976 are written in blood, ash and tears.

I met other student leaders to review plans before the march was scheduled to begin at 6.30am.

The direction the march was to follow was clear. Those coming from the west would meet other students at central, designated points. The Naledi group would proceed northwards via Zola, Emdeni, Jabulani, Zondi, Mofolo North, Mofolo Central, Dube and Orlando West townships, and finally all schoolchildren would meet at the Orlando stadium where the student representatives would lead discussions about Afrikaans, and draw up a petition for the department of education. After this act of solidarity, the students would disperse. It sounded so simple, too simple. To ensure the march was disciplined, and that all the students were accounted for at all times, we had agreed to march in rows, each row consisting of five students, holding hands. Each student was responsible for the person whose hand he or she held. From afar, the students looked like corn rows.

There was something beautiful and dignified about the gathering of the students that morning at the Naledi High School. The girls were in black-and-white check tunics and the boys wore grey pants, white shirts and black blazers. As we left the school gates we chanted the sorrowful Senzeni Na? Isono sethu bubumnyama lamabhunu ayizinja (What have we done? Our crime is our blackness. These white rulers are dogs).

As we led the big march our spirits lifted and the songs began to be more spontaneous and full of vitality: Sizobadubula ngembhay’mbhayi, a song by Miriam Makeba, was among the most popular freedom songs on that morning, but we also made up songs as we marched.