Avalon Cemetery is one of the largest

graveyard A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

s in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. It was opened in 1972, during the height of

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

, as a graveyard exclusively for black people. The huge extension was officially opened on 9 February by Matshidiso Mfikoe, at the time a mayoral committee member for environment and corporate services. Before Avalon opened, Sowetans were buried in Nancefield (Klipspruit) Cemetery. That burial ground opened in 1912 but is now full except for second or third burials. Just beyond the entrance, to the left, there are Memorials dedicated to struggle activists Lilian Ngoyi and Helen Joseph. During Women’s Month in August 2010, the graves of Ngoyi, Joseph and Maxeke were declared National Heritage Sites. (The cemetery has memorials to other heroes as well.) To the North, near the Train Station, lies the Mendi Memorial. In the cemetery are the graves of

Joe Slovo Joe Slovo (born Yossel Mashel Slovo; 23 May 1926 – 6 January 1995) was a South African politician, and an opponent of the apartheid system. A Marxist-Leninist, he was a long-time leader and theorist in the South African Communist Pa ...

and Hector Pieterson.

Culture

The standard for large funerals in black South African culture was set in the 1970s and 1980s, during the height of the

anti-apartheid struggle The Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM), was a British organisation that was at the centre of the international movement opposing the South African apartheid system and supporting South Africa's non-White population who were persecuted by the policie ...

. Thousands of students boycotted school, adopted the slogan "liberation before education" and took to the streets in protest. They inevitably clashed with police, and the death toll grew each week. The funerals for the victims became one of the most powerful expressions of defiance against the apartheid government. More than 10,000 people, some dressed in military fatigues and armed with wooden rifles, would flock to a cemetery to demonstrate their solidarity in the struggle. When there were not enough buses to drive them to the cemetery, the protesters stopped motorists and forced the drivers to give them a lift. By the end of the day, the funerals often generated new victims of the struggle to be buried the next week.

Famous burials

Avalon Cemetery is noted for a number of famous people interred on its grounds.
Notables include:

Hector Pieterson Zolile Hector Pieterson (19 August 1964 – 16 June 1976) was a South African schoolboy who was shot and killed at the age of twelve during the Soweto uprising, when the police opened fire on black students protesting the enforcement of teach ...

Hastings Ndlovu Hastings Ndlovu ( 2 February 1961 - 16 June 1976) was a schoolboy who was killed in the Soweto uprising against the apartheid system in South Africa. Life On 16 June 1976, when the police from the Orlando Police Station led by Colonel Kleingeld ...

Laloo Chiba Ishwarlal Laloo "Isu" Chiba (5 November 1930 – 8 December 2017) was a South African politician and revolutionary. He was arrested and sentenced at the Little Rivonia Trial in 1964 with Mac Maharaj and Wilton Mkwayi to join Nelson Mandela, Walter ...

, Lilian Ngoyi,

Helen Joseph Helen Beatrice Joseph (''née'' Fennell) (8 April 1905 – 25 December 1992) was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Born in Sussex, England, Helen graduated with a degree in English from the University of London in 1927 and then departe ...

Zephania Mothopeng Zephania Lekoame Mothopeng (10 September 1913 – 23 October 1990) was a South African political activist and member of the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC). Early life Mothopeng was born near Vrede in Free State, and he had five siblings. He ...

Abu Baker Asvat Abu Baker Asvat () (23 February 1943 – 27 January 1989), also known as Abu Asvat or Abu nicknamed ''Hurley'' was a South African medical doctor who practised in Soweto in the 1970s and 1980s. A founding member of Azapo, Asvat was the head of ...

and

Tsietsi Mashinini Teboho "Tsietsi" MacDonald Mashinini (born 27 January 1957 – 1990) in Jabavu, Soweto, South Africa, died summer, 1990 in Conakry, Guinea), and buried Avalon Cemetery, was the main student leader of the Soweto Uprising that began in Soweto a ...

References

{{Commons category, Avalon Cemetery Cemeteries in South Africa Buildings and structures in Soweto