June 13, 2022
Thursday, June 16, 2022
The Day of the African Child was established by the Organisation of African Unity on June 22, 1991.
The date chosen commemorates June 16, 1976, when 10,000 to 20,000 black high school children marched in a column more than half a mile long in Soweto. They were protesting against being forced to learn Afrikaans, and well as the substandard education provided by the apartheid regime for black children.
The police opened fire. At least 176 were killed. One of the dead was Hector Pieterson, who was only 12 years old.
Each year on this date the Society commemorates the tens of thousands of children in Africa who, even today, remain trapped in slavery, hierodulic servitude, bonded labor, pawnage, child labor, concubinage and servile marriages.