The 1960s are turbulent years in Europe, the United States of America and North Africa, with the youth making their voices heard. There is the Civil Rights Movement in the USA, the uprising by young Czechs as the Soviet Union grapples to retain control of Czechoslovakia, French students occupying the Sorbonne followed by running battles with the police, and Algeria’s long and bloody battle for independence.

On the surface, South Africa appears quiet. The reason – the ANC leaders are incarcerated on Robben Island. Perceptive St Mary’s girls (censorship and a lack of television keep the population to quite an extent in the dark), show deep concern about their country and state in the school magazine editorial (1969), when they write: “We, as another part of the youth of today, and the ruling party of tomorrow, are seeking for something that is not wholly tangible or definable, something which will … enable us to see the world through the wide eyes of tolerance.”

Young South Africans are to have a rude awakening in the late 1970s (see THE BORDER WAR, Learn More, 1968, decade 9).