The “Official” Story

The “Official Story” analyses contemporary local newspapers and government records and shows how they construct a certain version of history that omits the protestors’ perspectives, which is the purpose for writing this book, namely to present the things that the descendants of the brave protestors want to know. It demonstrates how justifiable social action of the oppressed was constructed as a riot through the use of documents and colonial procedures, prosecuted as a riot, and pathologized, ideologically filtered through the education system and into the popular vernacular. However, the colonized narrative of the uprising as the official story is constantly interrupted by the generational transmission of the protestors version. Both versions exist in much the same way as the official language- English, and the unwritten language spoken and understood by the majority population. It is a bifurcated existence that is central to the colonized subject.