Act and advance! An unfinished memoir of the 1976 student protests at the University of the Western Cape
Enrico G. Pedro, edited by Hein Willemse
Publisher: Abrile Doman Publishers
ISBN: 9780796141149
While researching the 1976 student protest at the University of the Western Cape, Enrico Pedro found that little information was available on the internet or elsewhere. At the time, the protest was in response to the uprising against Afrikaans as the language of instruction in Soweto on 16 June 1976. As a student at the time, he found the lack of information disturbing, “I was stunned. To think, over more than 40 years, only a few publications were published on this pivotal period in UWC’s history, a series of events that was so intense and distinguishable at the time of its happening.”
He writes in the foreword to Act and advance!, his newly released book about the events at UWC, “after the suppression of anti-apartheid opposition in the 1960s, the UWC protests saw the advent of mass political response in the Western Cape in 1976 and beyond. The students’ action advanced their struggle at the university, as well as the regional struggle in the province and the national struggle for liberation in the country.”
Act and advance! is Pedro’s contribution to filling the void about the events that led to the protests at UWC. He follows in detail the lead-up to the developments at the university, the actions and activities of the students and their outcomes. Several students were seriously injured, detained or incarcerated, some for attempted arson. Pedro’s view of the 1976 uprising in general is that it “left many people with permanent scars, lost opportunities, and impacted the development of our nation. The protests and acts of resistance were little victories against an unjust socio-political system. At UWC the protest freed us from being captive to lifelong guilt for having done nothing. Many students of that era devoted their entire lives to the South African liberation struggle.”