The Soweto uprising was a series of protests led by high school students in South Africa against introduction of Afrikaans as official language in education with oppression and neglecting their first languages as a part of apartheid. The uprising started on the morning of 16 June 1976.
Students from many Sowetan schools began to protest in the streets of Soweto, Johannesburg because Afrikaans had been introduced as the language of teaching in local schools. It is estimated that 20,000 students took part in the protests. The police responded by shooting, killing and wounding many protesters. The number of people shot dead in the resulting massacre is usually given as 176, but estimates of up to 700 have been made. In remembrance of these events, 16 June is now a public holiday in South Africa, named Youth Day.
