We Cannot Continue To Die Like This

A Movie By Babak Fakhamzadeh and Ismail Farouk

Avalon Cemetery is one of the largest cemeteries in South Africa and is the final resting place of many political and cultural activists. The cemetery is about 170ha in size and is managed by the City of Johannesburg’s City Parks division. At the entrance to the cemetery, a memorial with the words, “Never Never Again” inscribed on it pays tribute to those who lost their lives in the Soweto uprisings of 1976.

Avalon Cemetery is facing severe pressure. With the death rate is increasing by 10% per year and more than 200 funerals occurring each weekend, the cemetery is running out of space. Compounding the problem is the Aids pandemic. With more than 6.5 million of the country's 47 million people infected with HIV, demand for space is increasing. Every weekend, convoys of buses carrying mourners bring the Old Potchefstroom Road to a standstill. This has resulted in special traffic marshals being deployed to deal with the traffic congestion every weekend. Cremation is not considered appropriate for most people so City Parks are encouraging families to consider the “second burial” option, where several members of a family are buried in the same grave.

“We Cannot Continue to Die like this” is a short animated movie which responds to the pressures experienced by the cemetery because of the increase of funerals as a direct result of AIDS related deaths. The film frames the dense weekend funeral traffic in relationship to the 1976 memorial located at the entrance of the cemetery. This is done to bring about awareness to the current day struggle our society is experiencing. History is represented by the memorial to fallen heroes of 1976 - history will demand to know where our leaders are now, when this preventable disease continues to kill millions of people.

Nothing changes: Same Shit, Different Day

A work by Babak Fakhamzadeh, available on Flickr:

Hector Pieterson videorama

This composite videorama consists of four individual videos, stitched together like a panorama. The videos were taken in front of the Hector Pieterson museum. The monument on the right is the Hector Pieterson monument.

March 9, 3pm: Talk at Wits

Ismail Farouk and Babak Fakhamzadeh talked about the technical and social aspects of Soweto uprisings . com at Wits university's digital soiree on March 9th at 3pm.

Here's the poster:



And here's the presentation:

PDF: Soweto uprisings presentation
PPT: Soweto uprisings presentation

Why Hector Pieterson?

Today it is widely known that Hector Pieterson was not the first child killed on June 16 1976. The first to die was Hastings Ndlovu. So why do we memorialise Hector Pieterson and not Hastings Ndlovu?

A primary reason is because Hector Pieterson’s death was captured by photographer Sam Nzima. The photograph depicts Hector Pieterson being carried by an older boy with his sister running alongside. This famous photograph was plastered on newspaper front pages globally, bringing much attention to the actions of the police and the plight of the school children in Soweto. Today, this image has become an icon, an instrument of collective history and memory.

In the aftermath of the violence, a mass burial was planned for the dead. An application to hold a mass burial was made to the Johannesburg Chief Magistrate which was denied. Further attempts to list all the dead were foiled by the police as the bereaved families were denied access to the bodies of the dead.

A decision was made to hold a symbolic funeral using Hector Pieterson’s funeral as a symbol for all those who lost their lives during the Soweto uprisings of 1976.

Morris Isaacson High School Route

One of the main routes of the 1976 Soweto Uprisings from Morris Isaacson High School in Central Western Jabavu to Phefeni Junior Secondary School in Orlando West.

How to participate

There are plenty ways to participate in soweto uprisings . com. Here are a few:

• If you feel the map's missing a location which, really, should be on there, contact Ismail or Babak.
• You can leave a comment on any of the locations from one of the routes by clicking on the marker for the particular location you want to comment on. One of the tabs is called 'Comments'. Go there.
• You can submit pictures for any of the existing locations by uploading them to Flickr, joining the soweto uprisings group at Flickr and tagging them accordingly. What to tag your pictures with, you can find out by clicking on the '?' tab for any location.
• For certain locations, you can have your blog entries be listed in relation to the particular locations. Your blog must be indexed by Google blogsearch and satisfy the search criteria as mentioned on the '?' tab.
  
• If you have content, related to the Soweto uprisings which you feel fits better directly on this website as compared to your own blog, or if you don't have the ability or facility to maintain your own blog, contact Ismail or Babak.
• If you're a website owner located in or around Soweto, you can geotag your website. Check out GeoURL for details. When tagged correctly, we'll pick up your website automatically.

So you see, many possibilities. Just choose one.