For the past 40 years Antoinette Sithole has had to explain herself to the world . explain the events of the day her brother, Hector Pieterson, 12, died at the hands of security police.Explain how her life was changed by what was intended to be a peaceful march in a campaign to secure a decent education for black children.This is not how she envisioned her future.BACK DRAUGHT: A military helicopter takes off from the football field at Morris Isaacson High School, Jabavu, Soweto. The school's pupils were prominent in the protests of June 16 1976, when helicopters were used by the apartheid police to spot protesters. The presence of an SANDF helicopter in Soweto, especially at this school, brings back poignant memories for those old enough to have participated in the protests. Picture: Cornell TukiriSithole, 56, at the time a pupil at Phefeni Senior Secondary School, in Orlando West, Soweto, loved science and wanted to become a pharmacist."It was an interesting subject and I learnt more with every lesson. I never imagined that, instead of following my pharmaceutical dream, I would one day be telling the story of our people - the story of our struggle for education.RECOLLECTIONS: Nontsikelelo Makhubo, 61, is the sister of Mbuyisa Makhubo, who was photographed carrying the mortally wounded Hector Pieterson. Of her family, she says: 'We were brought up to read and learn and to believe in God. We were brought up to love every brother in the street'. On June 16, she says: 'I was out shopping with my mom on the day and we didn't arrive back home till 4pm. We had heard that Mbuyisa was a human ambulance, helping not just Hector but others, too'. Picture: Cornell Tukiri"My life changed in a drastic way. I no longer have time for myself. Every year I have to relive, rethink and retell that day. But what can I do? I have to tell the story. It's our story."Recalling how her brother Mbuyisa, then 18, was affected by the uprisings, Nontsikelelo Makhubo, 61, said: "I lost my brother while he was still here.REBEL DAYS: Albert 'Oupa' Moloto, who 40 years ago attended Morris Isaacson High School, was part of the student leadership that protested against Afrikaans being imposed as the means of instruction at schools. 'We were being taught mathematics in a language we struggled to understand. Our teachers also found it difficult to teach in Afrikaans,' he says. Soweto pupils met at Morris Isaacson to discuss their plans for a peaceful march on June 16. Picture: Cornell Tukiri"He had grown tense, paranoid and jumpy, always looking over his shoulder and living in constant fear."His sense of humour disappeared all in one day."Mbuyisa is the young man pictured carrying Pieterson and running beside Sithole in the iconic photograph taken by Sam Nzima minutes after the police opened fire on the crowd.SO MANY WREATHS: Sisters of Hastings Ndlovu - Jeanette, Thandi and Granny - look on as family friend and June 16 1976 student leader Barney Mokgatle and nephew KB lay a wreath at the spot at which Hastings was shot and killed by the police on Vilakazi Street, Orlando West. Mokgatle was with Ndlovu when he was killed. 'We were at the back of the march when the police came from behind. They set their dog on us, which we killed. That really upset them so they just started shooting at us.' Picture: Cornell Tukiri"He was raised to be helpful, so it was no surprise to the family when we were told that he had been helping to carry the injured to safety," she said.In August it will be 40 years since Mbuyisa left his family home in Orlando West following constant harassment by the security police. His last letter to his family is dated 1978 and was posted in Nigeria.FADING EMBERS: A reconciliation meeting at Madibane High School, Diepkloof, Soweto, attended by former SADF soldiers. Retired army colonel Jan Malan, third from left, said of 1976: 'We were there to stabilise the situation - to stop the necklacing and violence. We are not sorry for what we did; the system made us to be in this situation'. Picture: Cornell Tukiri Dulcy Motshoane, a student leader at the time, was fortunate to make it out of hiding six months after fleeing to Lesotho.She was part of the group of Naledi High School pupils who stoned and burned the yellow Volkswagen Beetle the security police arrived in when they came to the school to question the leader of the SA Students' Movement at the school, Enos Ngutshana, on June 8.SET IN STONE: Student leader Teboho 'Tsietsi' Mashinini's headstone at Avalon Cemetery. Picture: Cornell Tukiri"Though we knew our lives were at stake going against the government, what we were fighting for was bigger than any one of us."We were united in our cause, in spite of our parents' warnings to not provoke the white man.BYGONE: The Ndlovu family outside their home in Orlando West. Picture: Cornell Tukiri"No one could ignore the greatness of the movement."Motshoane said that, although she understood the frustrations of students today, they should take a page from the book of the youth of 1976.WAVE OF RAGE: The corner of Mputhi and Mailula streets, in Jabavu, a few metres from Morris Isaacson High School. This is where Dr Melville Edelstein was killed during the 1976 student uprising. Edelstein, a social worker, was dragged from a municipal building that stood here and beaten to death. Picture: Cornell Tukiri"There are many issues mixed together and students are not entirely to blame, but we never burned schools - we burned structures such as beer halls."..