CineMAfriq Film Series

Uprize! explores the world that shaped the students of '76 and how the students transformed that world. On the morning of June 16, 1976, students gathered to protest against the use of the Afrikaans language as a medium of instruction in schools. What started out as a planned peaceful march turned into a bloody confrontation by the police. The student protests spread to other parts of South Africa causing economic instability which rapidly plunged the country into crisis. The Soweto uprising also became inspiration for novels, songs, films and young activists around the world. Uprize! looks at the political, social and cultural conditions that shaped the June 1976 Soweto Students Uprising, how those ideas we transformed into liberatory action, and how those actions helped shape the democratic society we live in today.

1. What is your overall impressions of the documentary? Did you like it? 

2. Were you familiar at all with the Soweto Uprising?
   If no, what stood out the most to you? If yes, did you learn anything new? 

3. Did you find the concluding message of the documentary hopeful? Bleak? Both? 

4. What was the impact of art, poetry, and music on the protest movement? 

5. .Thoughts on the music soundtrack in this documentary? 

6. What was 'the last straw' in the rising tensions that led to the Soweto uprising? 

7. What are your thoughts on the importance of language and why this issue was so incendiary? 

8. How was the June 1976 Soweto Uprising a catalyst for protest more broadly?

9. How did these event shape the years that followed? And even today? 

SASO - South African Students Organization

SASM - South African Students Movement

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