Read Oral History #216. Available in English.
Apartheid put up so many obstacles for us, especially black people. We couldn’t get the best education, couldn’t work….We were struggling in many ways. As you can see in Soweto the houses are all the same. Small four room houses, these are the houses which we were given by the Apartheid regime. It was not nice, it was not nice at all. Until up to 1976 when the children started to protest and riot. Life was just not nice in South Africa, especially for black people. It was never nice.
Electricity and all the things we can see now, they were not there for us…. Everyone suffered under Apartheid. For those who were involved in the struggle it was even worse. Because sometimes…. as we are sitting like this, you as white people, you wouldn’t have come. Before they could know what is going on and they would come with all their guns. I would get arrested…. Just because I was sitting with white people I would be arrested. I would be arrested especially if they knew you were from abroad.