Being in South Africa, Maya should have known about
the discrimination that existed between races. Why was
she shocked Hector Pieterson was killed?
Answers
Explanation:
It was because she didn't know that kind of racial discrimination existed so she was shocked
Explanation:
Chapter 4
In this chapter you will read about some of
the key elements that influence the working
of a democratic government. These include
people's participation, the resolution of
conflict and equality and justice.
outh Africa is a country that has
people of several races. There are
black people who belong to South
Africa, whites who came there to settle,
and Indians who came as labourers
and traders.
Maya Naidoo, an eleven-year old
South African girl living in the town of
Johannesburg, was helping her mother
clear up her old boxes. She found a
scrapbook full of pictures and
newspaper articles. There were many
pictures of a young schoolboy of around
fifteen years of age. When she asked
her mother who the boy was, she was
told that he was called, Hector Pieterson.
He had been shot by the police. Maya
was shocked. "Why?" she asked.
Her mother explained that South
Africa was earlier governed by
apartheid laws. Apartheid means
separation on the basis of race. South
African people were divided into white,
black, Indian and coloured races.
According to the law, these races were
not allowed to mingle with each other, to
live near each other or even to use
common facilities.
Maya could not believe her ears.
Maya's mother sounded angry when
she spoke about life under apartheid.
She told Maya that in those days hospitals were separate and so were
ambulances. An ambulance meant for
white people would always be well
equipped while one meant for black
people was not. There were separate
trains and buses. Even the busstops
were different for black and white
people.
Non-whites were not allowed to
vote. The best land in the country was
reserved for the white people, and non-
whites had to live on the worst
available land. Thus blacks and
coloured people were not considered to
be equal to whites.
One black township was the South
Western Township (Soweto). Hector
Pieterson lived here and he and his
classmates joined the protest against
learning the Afrikaans language in
school. This was the language that the
whites spoke. Hector and other school
students were being forced to learn
this language but they wanted to learn
their own language, Zulu. The South
African police beat up the protestors
mercilessly and shot at the crowd.
One of their bullets killed Hector. This
was on 16 June 1976.
The African National Congress, a
group of people who led the struggle
against apartheid, and their most well
known leader, Nelson Mandela fought
the apartheid system for several
years. Finally, they succeeded and in
1994 South Africa became a
democratic country in which people of
all races were considered equal.
Let us now try to understand what
a democratic government means to all
of us.
PARTICIPATION
Why do we have regular elections?
You've already read in the previous
chapter that people make the
decisions in a democracy. Through
voting in elections people elect leaders
to represent them. These representa-
tives take decisions on behalf of the
What were Hector and his classmates
protesting about?
List five ways in which the non-whites
were discriminated against:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Do you think it is important for all
persons to be treated equally? Why? Religious processions and
celebrations can sometimes lead to
conflicts. For example, the route a
procession takes may lead to a conflict.
The government, particularly the
police, play an important role in
getting representatives of concerned
communities to meet and try and
arrive at a solution. At times there is
fear that violence may erupt, with
people throwing stones or trying to
disrupt the procession. The police is
responsible for ensuring that violence
does not take place.
Rivers too can become a source of
conflict between states. A river may
begin in one state, flow through
another and end in a third. The
sharing of river water between
different states that the river goes
through is becoming an issue of
conflict. For example, you may have
heard about the Cauvery water
dispute between Karnataka and
Tamil Nadu. The water stored in
Krishna Raja Sagara dam in
Karnataka is used for irrigating a
number of districts and for meeting
the needs of the city of Bengaluru. The
water stored in Mettur dam in Tamil
Nadu is used for crops grown in the
delta region of that state.
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