Book description
On June 16 1976 the students of Soweto rose up in protest against a
new rule that all teaching in African schools had to be done in
Afrikaans. They were led by a charismatic young man called Tsietsi
Mashinini. Tsietsi was one of the thirteen children of Joseph and
Nomkhitha Mashinini, God-fearing, law-abiding citizens who had never
been mixed up in politics. His actions on that day set in motion a
chain of events that would forever define his family, and that would
change all their lives.
In A Burning Hunger Lynda Schuster tells the story of this
remarkable family and in so doing tells the story of black South
Africa in microcosm. For this is a family that embraces just about
every facet of the liberation struggle. The eldest of the Mashinini
children, Rocks, rose to a high rank in the army of the ANC; for years
he directed the freedom fighters who infiltrated South Africa from
neighboring countries in order to carry out sabotage. Tsietsi,
brilliant, articulate, a natural leader, went underground after June
16 and then into exile. He was implacably opposed to the ANC and
became the darling of Vanessa Redgrave, Stokely Carmichael and Miriam
Makeba. He died in exile in 1990, just as his comrades were returning
to their homeland. Mpho, the fourth son, was the most militant. He was
eventually arrested, tortured and tried for treason. He went on to
establish one of the most important anti-government organizations of
the 1980s, the Soweto Youth Congress. Another brother, Dee, went to
Tanzania in order to become a guerrilla, but was refused on the
grounds of his youth. He eventually worked for Radio Freedom, the
voice of the ANC. Yet another, Tshepiso, bookish, church-going, was
torn between his studies and political activism. He eventually went to
Oxford to study, and returned to South Africa in 1991, becoming a key
figure on the Johannesburg council.
If the Mandelas were the generals in the fight for black liberation,
the Mashininis were the foot soldiers. It is the story of one black
family, ordinary but also extraordinary. It is a story of
imprisonment, torture, separation and loss, but also of dignity,
courage and strength in the face of appalling adversity. It will
become one of the seminal books about the struggle against apartheid.
Lynda Schuster worked in Africa as a journalist for the
Christian
Science Monitor
. She met the Mashininis in the 1980s and has had their full
co-operation in writing this book. She now lives in Florida.
