Hector Pieterson Memorial
The Hector Pieterson Memorial in Soweto , South Africa , is a memorial that commemorates the victims of the 1976 student protests in Soweto . It's in a small park near the Hector Pieterson Museum in Orlando .
On June 16, 1976, around 15,000 students demonstrated peacefully against the introduction of Afrikaans as the language of instruction. After police opened fire on the crowd, many young people were killed. Among them was the 12-year-old Hector Pieterson , who became a symbol of the subsequent uprisings against the apartheid regime .
In June 2002 Nelson Mandela inaugurated the Hector Pieterson Memorial in memory of Hector Pieterson and the other young people who lost their lives on June 16, 1976 and in the months that followed.
The memorial bears the following inscription:
"Honor the youth who gave their lives in the struggle for freedom and democracy.
In memory of Hector Peterson and all other young heroes and heroines of our struggle who laid down their lives for freedom, peace and democracy. "
“In honor of the youth who gave their lives fighting for freedom and democracy.
In memory of Hector Peterson and all the other young heroes and heroines of our struggle who gave their lives for freedom, peace and democracy. "
In contrast to the common spelling of the surname, the inscription says Peterson .
Coordinates: 26 ° 14 ′ 7 ″ S , 27 ° 54 ′ 25 ″ E