CHRONOLOGY: YOUTH VS. APARTHEID IN SOUTH AFRICA
1944-49: The African National Congress (ANC) Youth League, led by Nelson Mandela, challenges the ANC's moderate leadership and revitalizes the movement with its Program of Action.
1958-1966: The system of `Bantu education,' designed to educate blacks as potential laborers, is devised under the late Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid.
1960: The ANC is banned.
1976-84: Black youths re-emerge in a nationwide protest against the introduction of Afrikaans as the compulsory language of instruction in schools, and Bantu education in general.
1984-86: Black youths take over the resistance to white rule from the moderate older generation and lead a revolt.
1986: Tens of thousands of black youths are detained in a nationwide emergency aimed at breaking the resistance. Classes at black schools are almost permanently disrupted by boycotts. The ecumenical Joint Enrichment Program (JEP) is formed to ensure that the culture of learning is not completely destroyed by the youth revolution.
199O: Nelson Mandela is freed and calls on youths to go back to school. There is little response to a "Back to School" campaign waged by the ANC, churches, and community organizations.
June 1991: JEP convenes a national conference on youth attended by 300 representatives of 50 organizations. JEP commissions a comprehensive survey of youths.
June 1992: National Youth Development Coordinating Committee is formed.
March 1993: Follow-up conference (300 delegates from 120 groups) decides to establish National Youth Development Forum. Youth survey results are released.
April: Black youths rampage after the assassination of ANC leader Chris Hani.
May: Black students hold nationwide protests over examination fees and conditions at black schools. Meeting of Nelson Mandela and President Frederik de Klerk averts a nationwide teacher's strike.
June: Conference on forming a National Youth Service Corps mandates a group to come up with a national plan within eight weeks.
