Sharpeville massacre 1

Sharpeville massacre

Some of the casualties of police fire

The Sharpeville massacre occurred on 21March 1960, at the police station in theSouth African township of Sharpeville in theTransvaal (today part of Gauteng). After aday of demonstrations, at which a crowd ofblack protesters far outnumbered the police,the South African police opened fire on thecrowd, killing 69 people. Sources disagreeas to the behaviour of the crowd; some statethat the crowd were peaceful,[1] while othersstate that the crowd had been hurling stonesat the police, and that the shooting startedwhen the crowd started advancing towardthe fence around the police station.[2] Inpresent-day South Africa, 21 March is celebrated as a public holiday in honor of human rights and to commemoratethe Sharpeville massacre.

Preceding eventsSince the 1920s, the movements of black South Africans had been restricted by pass laws. Leading up to theSharpeville massacre, the apartheid-supporting National Party government under the leadership of HendrikVerwoerd used these laws to enforce greater segregation[2] and, in 1959-1960, extended them to includewomen.[3]:pp.14,528 From the 1960s, the pass laws were the primary instrument used by the state to arrest and harassits political opponents. By the same token, it was mainly the popular resistance, mobilised against those pass laws,that kept resistance politics alive during this period.[3]:p.163

The African National Congress (ANC) had decided to launch a campaign of protests against pass laws. Theseprotests were to begin on 31 March 1960, but the rival Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) decided to pre-empt the ANCby launching its own campaign ten days earlier, on 21 March, because they believed that the ANC could not win thecampaign.[4][5]

MassacreOn 21 March, a group of between 5,000 and 7,000 people converged on the local police station in the township ofSharpeville, offering themselves up for arrest for not carrying their pass books.[6] The Sharpeville police were notcaught totally by surprise for the demonstration, as they had already been forced to drive smaller gangs of moremilitant activists away from their station the previous night.[7]

Many of the civilians present attended to support the protest, but there is evidence that the PAC also usedintimidating means to draw the crowd there, including the cutting of telephone lines into Sharpeville, the distributionof pamphlets telling people not to go to work on the day, and coercion of bus drivers and commuters.[3]:p.534

By 10:00 am, a large crowd had gathered, and the atmosphere was initially peaceful and festive. Fewer than 20 police officers were present in the station at the start of the protest. Later the crowd grew to about 19,000,[7] and the mood began turning unexpectedly hostile. The increasingly agitated mob now adopted a common attitude which was later described as "insulting, menacing, and provocative",[7] prompting about 130 police reinforcements, supported by four Saracen armored cars to be rushed in. The police were armed with firearms, including Sten sub-machine

Sharpeville massacre 2

guns. There was no evidence that anyone in the gathering was armed with anything other than rocks.[2]

Sabre jets and Harvard Trainers approached to within a hundred feet of the ground, flying low over the crowd in anattempt to scatter it. The protestors responded by hurling a few stones (striking three people) and making repeatedattempts to charge the police barricades. Tear gas proved ineffectual, and policemen were forced to repel theseadvances with their batons.[7] At about 1:00 pm the police tried to arrest an alleged ringleader. There was a scuffle,and the throng surged forward. At least two officers present on the scene warned their men to load firearms butstressed they were only to be used in cases of dire emergency.[7] Protestors began screaming as they succeeded inreaching the fence and tearing the gates from their hinges. One police commander was thrown to the ground; otherswere possibly pelted with makeshift projectiles.[7] The shooting began shortly thereafter.[2]

Death and injury tollThe official figure is that 69 people were killed, including 8 women and 10 children, and 180 injured, including 31women and 19 children. Many were shot in the back as they turned to flee.[8]

Reasons for firingPolice reports in 1960 claimed that young and inexperienced police officers panicked and opened fire spontaneously,setting off a chain reaction that lasted about forty seconds. It is likely that the police were nervous as two monthsbefore the massacre nine constables had been murdered under similar circumstances at Cato Manor. In addition,nearly all policemen present had received no previous training regarding the control of mob disturbances. Most ofthem had already been coping with the situation for over twenty-four hours without respite.[7] Lieutenant ColonelPienaar, the commanding officer of the police reinforcements at Sharpeville, said in his statement that "the nativementality does not allow them to gather for a peaceful demonstration. For them to gather means violence."[8] He alsodenied giving any order to fire and stated that he would not have done so.Other evidence given to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1998 suggested "a degree of deliberation in thedecision to open fire".[3]:p.537

Response

Painting depicting victims of the massacre

The uproar among South Africa's black population was immediate, andthe following week saw demonstrations, protest marches, strikes, andriots around the country. On 30 March 1960, the government declareda state of emergency, detaining more than 18,000 people, includingprominent anti-apartheid activists who were known as members of theCongress Alliance.

A storm of international protest followed the Sharpeville shootings,including sympathetic demonstrations in many countries[9][10] andcondemnation by the United Nations. On 1 April 1960, the UnitedNations Security Council passed Resolution 134. Sharpeville marked aturning point in South Africa's history; the country found itselfincreasingly isolated in the international community. The event also played a role in South Africa's departure fromthe Commonwealth of Nations in 1961.

The Sharpeville massacre led to the banning of the PAC and ANC. The massacre was one of the catalysts for a shiftfrom passive resistance to armed resistance by these organisations. The foundation of Poqo, the military wing of thePAC, and Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the ANC, followed shortly afterwards.

Sharpeville massacre 3

AftermathSince 1994, 21 March has been commemorated as Human Rights Day in South Africa.Sharpeville was the site selected by President Nelson Mandela for the signing into law of the Constitution of SouthAfrica on 10 December 1996.In 1998, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) found that the police actions constituted "gross humanrights violations in that excessive force was unnecessarily used to stop a gathering of unarmed people."[3]:p.537

International Day for the Elimination of Racial DiscriminationUNESCO marks March 21 as the yearly International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, in memoryof the massacre.

References[1] McKay, John P.; Hill, Bennett D.; Buckler, John; Ebrey, Patricia Buckley; Beck, Roger B.; Crowston, Clare Haru; Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E.

A History of World Societies: From 1775 to Present (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=ZLkOVE93dX8C& dq=0312682980& hl=en&ei=8QaRTOr-LJT2swON_62yDg& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=1& ved=0CDYQ6AEwAA) . Eighth edition. Volume C –From 1775 to the Present. (2009). Bedford/St. Martin's (http:/ / www. bedfordstmartins. com/ ): Boston/New York. ISBN 978-0-312-68298-9.ISBN 0-312-68298-0. "By the 1950s, blacks--and their coloured, white, and Asian allies--were staging large-scale peaceful protests. A turningpoint came in 1960, when police at Sharpeville fired into a peaceful crowd of demonstrators and killed sixty-nine blacks" (1010).

[2] "The Sharpeville Massacre" (http:/ / www. time. com/ time/ magazine/ article/ 0,9171,869441-1,00. html). Time Magazine. 4 April 1960. .Retrieved 15 December 2006.

[3] (PDF) Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report, Volume 3, Chapter 6 (http:/ / www. doj. gov. za/ trc/ report/ finalreport/TRC VOLUME 3. pdf). 28 October 1998. pp. 531–537. . Retrieved 15 December 2006.

[4] Boddy-Evans, Alistair. "Sharpeville Massacre, The Origin of South Africa's Human Rights Day" (http:/ / africanhistory. about. com/ library/weekly/ aa-SharpevilleMassacre-a. htm). about.com. . Retrieved 15 December 2006.

[5] http:/ / www. sowetan. co. za/ News/ Article. aspx?id=1125732[6] Remember Sharpeville (http:/ / www. sahistory. org. za/ pages/ governence-projects/ sharpeville/ menu. htm) at South African History[7] Thomas McGhee, Charles C.; N/A, N/A, eds. (1989). The plot against South Africa (2nd ed.). Pretoria: Varama Publishers.

ISBN 0-620-14537-4.[8] Reeves, Rt. Reverend Ambrose. "The Sharpeville Massacre - A watershed in South Africa" (http:/ / www. sahistory. org. za/ pages/

library-resources/ articles_papers/ 1960-sharpeville-massacre-rev-ambrose. html). sahistory.org.za. . Retrieved 15 July 2007.[9] "Outside South Africa there were widespread reactions to Sharpeville in many countries which in many cases led to positive action against

South Africa".—Reeves Rt-Rev A. The Sharpeville Massacre--a Watershed in South Africa (http:/ / africanhistory. about. com/ gi/ dynamic/offsite. htm?site=http:/ / www. anc. org. za/ ancdocs/ history/ misc/ shareve. html)

[10] E.g., "[I]mmediately following the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa, over 1000 students demonstrated in Sydney against the apartheidsystem".—Barcan A. Student activists at Sydney University 1960-1967 (http:/ / www. thefreelibrary. com/ Student+ activists+ at+ Sydney+University+ 1960-1967:+ a+ problem+ of. . . -a0164112253) in History of Education Review, 1 January 2007

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Image Sources, Licenses and ContributorsImage:Sharpville-massacre.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Sharpville-massacre.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Keystone/StaffFile:Murder at Sharpeville 21 March 1960.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Murder_at_Sharpeville_21_March_1960.jpg  License: Creative CommonsAttribution-Sharealike 3.0  Contributors: Godfrey Rubens (painter and photographer)

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