African students at Sussex have been celebrating the first World Cup football tournament to be held in Africa - and today is the second match for hosts South Africa. It is also the anniversary of the 1976 Soweto uprising - a series of clashes between South African authorities and black youths protesting against the apartheid regime. 

To mark this occasion, and to show non-African fellow students why the World Cup means so much more than just football to South Africans, a group of African postgraduates at the University are holding a screening of film footage taken during the 1976 uprising, and will be giving talks before getting out the vuvuzelas and watching the match against Uruguay. 

South African student Tshegofatso Motaung is one of the speakers. She is studying for an MA in Global Political Economy at Sussex. She says: "We had such a great time watching the opening game. 

"We will be gathering again today for the South Africa v Uruguay game. This game is taking place on 16 June, a day in which the Soweto uprising took place, when students were killed fighting for better education in the apartheid South Africa. 

"It was an event that has altered the course of our history as a country. Given how significant this day is we will be screening video clips of June 16, 1976 to our non-South African friends and supporters for them to get a sense of why this World Cup is more than just a tournament to South Africans."

Sussex has a history of close ties with South Africa. Former President Thabo Mbeki was a student at Sussex in the 1960s, as were other members of post-apartheid governments in South Africa. 

Mandela Hall, in Falmer House, was named after the legendary leader of the struggle against apartheid, and the country's first black President - Nelson Mandela.

Staff and students also support the Mandela Scholarship Fund, set up in 1973 at the University to provide higher education to South African students who were unable to study at university level because of discriminatory apartheid laws. Today it provides postgraduate scholarships to South African and Namibian students from communities who were disadvantaged by the apartheid era.

The World Cup football match between South Africa and Uruguay kicks off at 7.30pm this evening (16 June). The students will be watching the match at the Institute for Development Studies (IDS) bar on campus, with presentations from 6.45pm.