W
HO remembers when June 16 was Soweto Uprising Day? The day was used to celebrate the valour of the kids who rose up against the tyranny of the National Party government, and to commemorate the spirit of those who lost their lives.
In the early ’90s, mostly as a direct consequence of the bravery of those kids, we birthed a nondescript entity called Codesa. It achieved many wonderful and useful things, but it also went on a major sanitization drive, culminating in Soweto Uprising Day being “celebrated” as Youth Day.
I imagine this is because “Soweto Uprising” conjures ugly images of children swimming in pools of their own blood. This is understandable. That mental imagery is probably