Phefeni

I went back later after writing my report, I went back just to view the situation in Phefeni and most of the students were now walking back to their homes.

'I Saw a Nightmare …' Doing Violence to Memory: The Soweto Uprising, June 16, 1976 2005

2 At another high school in Phefeni township the word Asingeni (we will not enter) was painted on the doors. 3

'I Saw a Nightmare …' Doing Violence to Memory: The Soweto Uprising, June 16, 1976 2005

My daughter […] she is the one she was attending that school, where it started, at Phefeni … yes, yes, at

'I Saw a Nightmare …' Doing Violence to Memory: The Soweto Uprising, June 16, 1976 2005

Like the different paths that led to Phefeni Junior Secondary School, the experiences and actions of ordinary students caught up in or creating the events of that day were vastly different, depending on many factors and realities.

'I Saw a Nightmare …' Doing Violence to Memory: The Soweto Uprising, June 16, 1976 2005

[T] he whole initiative was taken by students, especially those at PJSS [Phefeni Junior Secondary School] … I should think this can be rectified by people coming out and speaking the truth … I do know the whereabouts of most of the students from the various classes.

'I Saw a Nightmare …' Doing Violence to Memory: The Soweto Uprising, June 16, 1976 2005

Next to Phefeni Station I saw Tebello Motapanyane and told him to tell students that they should disperse and further that they should not get back to school not until Afrikaans as a medium of instruction was scrapped off.

'I Saw a Nightmare …' Doing Violence to Memory: The Soweto Uprising, June 16, 1976 2005

As Ndlovu, himself a 14-year-old student at Phefeni Junior Secondary School in 1976, had pointed out above, some students had never heard of or joined a student movement: 87

'I Saw a Nightmare …' Doing Violence to Memory: The Soweto Uprising, June 16, 1976 2005

I knew rudimentary things like that … We were aware what was happening at PJSS [Phefeni Junior Secondary School class boycotts].

'I Saw a Nightmare …' Doing Violence to Memory: The Soweto Uprising, June 16, 1976 2005

Like the different roads that led to Phefeni Junior Secondary and Orlando West High School, the experiences and actions of ordinary students were vastly different.

'I Saw a Nightmare …' Doing Violence to Memory: The Soweto Uprising, June 16, 1976 2005

Once gathered at Phefeni Junior Secondary School, Tsietsi Mashinini was going "to address the students on the Afrikaans issue, telling them why other schools had to show their solidarity with the schools that were on strike against Afrikaans being used as a medium of instruction and also that the students should not go back to school, not until the demand against Afrikaans has been met."

'I Saw a Nightmare …' Doing Violence to Memory: The Soweto Uprising, June 16, 1976 2005