On 16 June 1976, 10,000 children and adolescents from Soweto - Johannesburg, the symbolic ghetto of apartheid in South Africa, came together to protest peacefully against the inadequate school education afforded them and the mandatory teaching of Afrikaans, the language of those that forced them to endure racial segregation. The protest finished in a blood bath: following the intervention of the police, armed with rifles and tear gas, 152 youths were killed and another 1000 injured. The following year the protests continued and, despite the ferocious repression that led to another 700 casualties, the Government revoked the teaching of Afrikaans: the first step towards the abolition of apartheid, which became official in 1991.

The same year, the Organisation of African Unity declared 16 June as Day of the African Child in memory of the Soweto March and its martyrs, making it a symbol of courage and the fight for the rights of all oppressed children.