Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum

Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum


This memorial was named after Hector Pieterson who was a boy that was killed on a day the South African people call the “Day of the Uprising of the School Children”, which happened on June 16, 1975. It was a nonviolent protest by the school children against the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. During the protest there was a confrontation with the apartheid police that resulted in the loss of many students lives.


Our tour guide Queen informed us that the Memorial has many symbolic meanings. The different colored rocks that surround it were chosen to represent the different races in South Africa and how they all coexist together. The water was placed there to symbolize the blood that was lost in the uprising, and also the tears of the parents of the children that were killed. Lastly, the olive trees that are planted around the Memorial are there to symbolize peace.

In the picture above, you can see that there is an image of an older boy carrying a younger boy. The young boy is Hector Pieterson, and the older boy is a high school student named Mbuyisa Makhubo.  You can also see Antoinette Sithole (the sister of Hector Pieterson) running beside the two boys.  This image was seen around the world as a representation of the treatment of black South Africans in the apartheid government.

Along with the Memorial we toured the Museum that is on the same grounds and learned more about the enforcement of Afrikaans as a language. The picture below is the last stop in the Museum and is a room dedicated to the children that lost their lives. Each brick has the child’s name on it.


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