From The Frontline-Episode 122-The Untold Story Behind the Soweto Riots 1976

The Untold Story Behind the Soweto Riots 16 June 1976
Tomorrow, 16 June, is a Public Holiday, Youth Day, in honour of the Soweto youth Uprising of 16 June 1976. Much mythology has arisen. However, most are not aware of what really happened, before, during and after that dreadful day. At this time, with riots, looting and arson tearing apart many cities in the USA, the experiences and insights of Christians in South Africa 44 years ago, may come at a most opportune time.

Friends of mine, Patrick Johnson, who pioneered and authored Operation World, (the first edition of which was actually printed by Dorothea Mission) and Tom Barlow, who co-authored with me, South Africa – Renaissance or Reformation? was a missionary of the Dorothea Mission at that time. The book Soweto… But God! was published by the Dorothea Mission, which was embedded in Soweto. Their first hand, eyewitness insights to this pivotal event in the history of Southern Africa, are unique. This was not written by journalists from the outside, but by Christian missionaries with a lifetime of dedicated service to the very communities which were torn apart by revolutionary violence. The targeting of Christians and burning of churches and the homes of ministers of the Gospel was not reported in the secular media. Nor was the targeting of Christian parents in Soweto and the radicalisation of the youth.

“This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: that one thing happens to all. Truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; madness is in their hearts…”

Ecclesiastes 9:3