Teboho MacDonald Mashinini

Teboho Donald Mashinini
Born 27 January 1957
Soweto central western Jabavu
Died 1990
Guinea
Cause of death Severe Injury
Nationality South African
Other names tsietsi
Education Morris Isaacson
Occupation Political Activist
Known for 1976 Student Uprising
Successor Kgotso Seatlolo
Religion Methodist
Spouse(s) Welma Albertine Wani Campbell
Children Kiki Mashinini and Thembile Mashinini
Parent(s) Nomkitha Virginia Mashinin, Ramothibi Mashinini
Relatives Mpho Vincent Mashinini

Teboho "Tsietsi" MacDonald Mashinini (born 27 January 1957 in Central Western Jabavu, Soweto, South Africa, died summer, 1990 in Conakry, Guinea), buried Avalon Cemetery, was the primary student leader of the Soweto Uprising that began in Soweto and spread across South Africa in June, 1976.

Life

Mashinini was born in 1957. He was a bright, popular and successful student at Morris Isaacson High School[1] in Soweto where he was the head of the debate team and president of the Methodist Youth Guild.

A move by South Africa's apartheid government to make the white, colonial language Afrikaans an equal mandatory language of education for all South Africans in conjunction with English was extremely unpopular with black and English-speaking South African students.

A student himself, Mashinini planned a mass demonstration by students for 16 June 1976.[1] This demonstration which would become known as the Soweto Uprising lasted for three days during which several hundred people were killed, the majority of them black students.

Having been identified as the leader of the uprising by the South African government, Mashinini fled South Africa in exile, first to London then later to various other African countries, including Liberia where he was briefly married to Miss Liberia 1977, Welma Campbell.

He died under mysterious circumstances, possibly of AIDS, possibly of homicide, in the summer of 1990 while in exile in Guinea.[2] His body was repatriated to South Africa on 4 August 1990 where he was interred in Avalon Cemetery. His grave bears the epitaph "Black Power."[3]

Legacy

There is a statue of Teboho Mashinini by Johannes Phokela in the grounds of his old school that was unveiled on 1 May 2010 by Amos Masondo, the Mayor of Johannesburg.[4]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Mecoamere, Victor (27 May 2013). "Naledi High turns 50". Sowetan Live. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  2. ↑ "Tsietsi died of AIDS"
  3. ↑ "The homecoming that wasn't"
  4. ↑ "Unveiling of the Tsietsi Mashinini statue". joburg.org.za. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
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