what caused the sharpeville massacre
And then there are those who feel deeply involved and moved, but also powerless to deal with the enormity of the situation (Krog 221). March 16 saw a demonstration in Montgomery, Alabama in which 580 demonstrators planned to march from the Jackson Street Baptist Church to the Montgomery County Courthouse (Reed 26). By comparing and contrasting the American Jim Crow Laws and South African apartheid, we have evidence that both nations constitutions led to discrimination, activism, reform and reconciliation. On the 21st of March 1960, black residents of Sharpeville took to the police station to protest against the use of the dompas in South Africa. Others were throwing rocks and shouting "Pigs off campus. The Apartheid was initiated as a ploy for Europeans to better control the exploited populations for economic gain, as maintaining tension between the different racial classifications diverted attention from the Europeans as it fed hatred between groups. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Nelson Mandela was a member of the banned African National Congress and led an underground armed movement that opposed the apartheid by attacking government buildings in South Africa during the early 1960s. The Sharpeville massacre also touched off three decades of protest in South Africa, ultimately leading to freedom for Nelson Mandela, who had spent 27 years in prison. As an act of rebellion the passes were set alight, as seen in a picture by Ranjith Kally. and [proved to be] the only antidote against foreign rule and modern imperialism (Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom 2008, 156) . [10] Some insight into the mindset of those on the police force was provided by Lieutenant Colonel Pienaar, the commanding officer of the police reinforcements at Sharpeville, who said in his statement that "the native mentality does not allow them to gather for a peaceful demonstration. Mandela and was given a life sentence in prison for treason against the South African government in 1964. It also came to symbolize that struggle. It also contributed the headline story at the Anti-Racism Live Global Digital Experience that marked March 21 internationally with acclaimed artists, actors and prominent speakers from South Africa including Thuli Madonsela, Zulaikha Patel and Zwai Bala. People often associate their behavior and actions from the groups they belong to. Early on that March morning, demonstrations against the pass laws, which restricted the rights of apartheid South Africas majority black population, had begun in Sharpeville, a township in Transvaal. In the aftermath of the events of 21 March, mass funerals were held for the victims. Similarly, African American leaders from the fifties to the sixties also fought for the end of segregation, in cases such as Brown v. Board of Education. Some of them remain in prison", "Sharpeville Memorial, Theunis Kruger Street, Dicksonville, Sharpville ABLEWiki", Calls for inquiry into Israels Gaza killings, Storming of the Kempton Park World Trade Centre, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sharpeville_massacre&oldid=1140778365, Killings by law enforcement officers in South Africa, Short description is different from Wikidata, Use South African English from April 2016, All Wikipedia articles written in South African English, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2023, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 21 February 2023, at 19:08. A few days later, on 30 March 1960, Kgosana led a PAC march of between 30 000-50 000 protestors from Langa and Nyanga to the police headquarters in Caledon Square. At the annual conference of the African National Congress (ANC) held in Durban on 16 December 1959, the President General of the ANC, Chief Albert Luthuli, announced that 1960 was going to be the "Year of the Pass." This assisted in minimizing unity between the exploited to rally against European control as it backhandedly induced submission for survival. Following the dismantling of apartheid, South African President Nelson Mandela chose Sharpeville as the site at which, on December 10, 1996, he signed into law the countrys new constitution. [5], The official figure is that 69 people were killed, including 8 women and 10 children, and 180 injured, including 31 women and 19 children. Sixty-nine Africans were killed and 186 were wounded, with most shot in the back. South Africa had already been harshly criticised for its apartheid policies, and this incident fuelled anti-apartheid sentiments as the international conscience was deeply stirred. Riding into the small group of protestors, they forced most to withdraw, but a few stood fast around a utility pole where horsemen began to beat them. On 24 March 1960, in protest of the . The ANC and PAC were forced underground, and both parties launched military wings of their organisations in 1961. The Minister of Native Affairs declared that apartheid was a model for the world. Weve been busy, working hard to bring you new features and an updated design. Initially the police commander refused but much later, approximately 11h00, they were let through; the chanting of freedom songs continued and the slogans were repeated with even greater volume. The ANC was encouraged and campaigned for democracy in South Africa. However, the governments method of controlling people who resisted the apartheid laws didnt have the same effect from the early 1970s and onward. The Sharpeville massacre occurred on 21 March 1960 at the police station in the township of Sharpeville in the then Transvaal Province of the then Union of South Africa (today part of Gauteng ). When the news of the Sharpeville Massacre reached Cape Town a group of between 1000 to 5000 protestors gathered at the Langa Flats bus terminus around 17h00 on 21 March 1960. As a result of racial segregation, resistance from coloured people in both the United States and South Africa escalated. At its inaugural session in 1947, the UN Commission on Human Rights had decided that it had no power to take any action in regard to any complaints concerning human rights. What event happened on March 21 1960? Along the way small groups of people joined him. On March 21, an estimated 7,000 South Africans gathered in front of the Sharpeville police station to protest against the restrictive pass laws. What happened on 21 March in Sharpeville? The police assembled and used disproportionate responses to the protest. The police and army arrested thousands of Africans, who were imprisoned with their leaders, but still the mass action raged. Police arrested more than 11,000 people and kept them in jail. The protesters offered themselves up for arrest for not carrying their passes. Dr. Verwoerd praised the police for their actions. The victims included about 50 women and children. But it was not until after Sharpeville that the UN made clear that the countrys system of racial segregation would no longer be tolerated. ISCOR and SASOL, the state's metal and fuel companies, were and continue to be the two key role players in the provision of employment in the Sharpeville region. One way of accomplishing this was by instilling laws thatd force segregation, classification, educational requirements, and economic purposes. The targeted protest became infamous in the Civil Rights Movement, marked Bloody Sunday and was crucial to gaining favor of the public (civilrights.org). March 21, is celebrated as a public holiday in honor of human rights and to commemorate the . Accessible across all of today's devices: phones, tablets, and desktops. Although this event in itself acted as a turning point in the struggle of black South Africans towards restoring dignity, but there were certain events which happened before Sharpeville massacre that caused widespread frustration and resentment in the black African community. The significance of the date is reflected in the fact that it now marks the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The police ordered the crowd to disperse within 3 minutes. By 1960, however, anti-apartheid activism reached the town. Philip H. Frankel, An Ordinary Atrocity: Sharpeville and its Massacre (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001); Henry F. Jackson, From the Congo to Soweto: U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Africa Since 1960 (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1982); Meredith Martin, The History of Apartheid: The Story of the Colour War in South Africa (New York: London House & Maxwell, 1962). The massacre also sparked hundreds of mass protests by black South Africans, many of which were ruthlessly and violently crushed by the South African police and military. The police shot many in the back as they turned to flee, causing some to be paralyzed. The Population Registration Act of 1950 enacted, requiring segregation of Europeans from Afrikaans . The Sharpeville massacre. This abuse towards people of colour in South Africa made people around the world want to protest against South Africa's government. At its inaugural session in 1947, the UN Commission on Human Rights had decided that it had no power to take any action in regard to any complaints concerning human rights. Eyewitness accounts attest to the fact that the people were given no warning to disperse. But it was not until after Sharpeville that the UN made clear that the countrys system of racial segregation would no longer be tolerated. A robust humanrights framework is the only way to provide a remedy for those injustices, tackle inequality and underlying structural differences, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. There was no evidence that anyone in the gathering was armed with anything other than stones. . A United Nations photograph by Kay Muldoon, Courtesy of the International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa, SATIS (Southern Africa - the Imprisoned Society). 351 Francis Baard Street,Metro Park Building ,10th Floor [10] At about 13:00 the police tried to arrest a protester, and the crowd surged forward. But change can also be prompted by seemingly minor events in global affairs such as the Sharpeville massacre the so-called butterfly effect. Eventually a few of the demonstrators dared to cross the street, led by James Forman who had organized the march. The Afrikaner poet Ingrid Jonker mentioned the Sharpeville Massacre in her verse. Just after 1pm, there was an altercation between the police officer in charge and the leaders of the demonstration. Knowing the democracy we have today was achieved in part because of the blood we sacrificed was worth it, she says. Following the Brown decision, grassroots African American activists began challenging segregation through protests continuing into the 1960s (Aiken et al., 2013). He was followed by Dr. Yusuf Dadoo, Chairperson of the South African Indian Congress and Chairperson of the underground South African Communist Party. The call for a stay away on 28 March was highly successful and was the first ever national strike in the countrys history. To read more about the protests in Cape Town. the Sharpeville Massacre International sympathy lay with the African people, leading to an economic slump as international investors withdrew from South Africa and share prices on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange plummeted. These protests were to begin on 31 March 1960, but the rival Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), led by Robert Sobukwe, decided to pre-empt the ANC by launching its own campaign ten days earlier, on 21 March, because they believed that the ANC could not win the campaign. Another officer interpreted this as an order and opened fire, triggering a lethal fusillade as 168 police constables followed his example. Sharpeville was much more than a single tragic event. The event was an inspiration for painter Oliver Lee Jackson in his Sharpeville Series from the 1970s.[23]. That date now marks the International Day for the. Youth standing up against racism was the 2021 theme, aimed at fostering a global culture of tolerance, equality and non-discrimination that calls on each one of us to stand up against racial prejudice and intolerant attitudes. Updates? It was one of the first and most violent demonstrations against apartheid in South Africa. The protesters responded by hurling stones (striking three policemen) and rushing the police barricades. The Sharpeville Massacre awakened the international community to the horrors of apartheid. A week later, a breakaway group from the ANC, the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) held its first conference in Johannesburg. Sharpeville massacre, (March 21, 1960), incident in the Black township of Sharpeville, near Vereeniging, South Africa, in which police fired on a crowd of Black people, killing or wounding some 250 of them. Under the country's National Party government, African residents in urban districts were subject to influx control measures. After translating an article, all tools except font up/font down will be disabled. In 1946, the UN established the Commission on Human Rights, whose first job was to draft a declaration on human rights. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? [7][8], On 21 March, 1960, a group of between 5,000 and 10,000 people converged on the local police station, offering themselves up for arrest for not carrying their passbooks. Pass laws intended to control and direct their movement and employment were updated in the 1950s. At the end of the bridge, they were met by many law enforcement officers holding weapons; thus, the demonstrators were placing their lives in danger. Furthermore, during the nineties to the twenties, leaders of African Americans sought to end segregation in the South, as caused by Plessy v. Ferguson. Now aged 84, Selinah says she is still proud of her efforts to end apartheid. Business Studies. Although the protests were anticipated, no one could have predicted the consequences and the repercussions this would have for South African and world politics. Its been 60 years since the Sharpeville massacre, when 69 unarmed civilians were killed by armed South African police on March 21 1960. Krog was one of these Afrikaners. Both organisations were deemed a serious threat to the safety of the public and the vote stood at 128 to 16 in favour of the banning. Through a series of mass actions, the ANC planned to launch a nationwide anti-pass campaign on 31 March - the anniversary of the 1919 anti-pass campaign. It also came to symbolize that struggle. On 1 April 1960, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 134. The South African government began arresting more nonconformists and banning resistance organizations, such as the African National Congress and the Pan African Congress. The Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), a splinter group of the African National Congress (ANC) created in 1959, organized a countrywide demonstration for March 21, 1960, for the abolition of South Africas pass laws. The subject of racial discrimination in South Africa was raised at the UN General Assembly in its first session, in 1946, in the form of a complaint by India concerning the treatment of Indians in the country. The laws said that blacks could not enter white areas unless they carried documents known as pass books. The PAC argued that if thousands of people were arrested, then the jails would be filled and the economy would come to a standstill. As they attempted to disperse the crowd, a police officer was knocked down and many in the crowd began to move forward to see what had happened. [16], The Sharpeville massacre contributed to the banning of the PAC and ANC as illegal organisations. [6]:p.163, The African National Congress (ANC) prepared to initiate a campaign of protests against pass laws. Your donation is fully tax-deductible. This article first appeared on The Conversation, Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. Perseverance and determination are also needed to build on the lessons learnedfrom the Sharpeville tragedy and repair the injustices of the past. The apartheid system forcefully suppressed any resistance, such as at Sharpeville on March 21 1960, when 69 blacks were killed, and the Soweto Riots 1976-77, when 576 people died. By mid-day approximately 300 armed policemen faced a crowd of approximately 5000 people. That day about 20,000 people gathered near the Sharpeville police station. Sobukwe was only released in 1969. There were 249 victims in total, including 29 children, with 69 people killed and 180 injured. The Sharpeville massacre, the name given to the murder of 69 unarmed civilians by armed South African police, took place on 21 March 1960. Across the street came 40 or so students who planned on joining the group en route to the Courthouse. It is also a day to reflect on the progress that has been made in ensuring basic human rights for all South Africans, as enshrined in our Constitution. An article entitled "PAC Campaign will be test," published in the 19 March 1960 issue of Contact,the Liberal Party newspaper, described the build up to the campaign: At a press conference held on Saturday 19th March 1960, PAC President Robert Sobukwe announced that the PAC was going to embark on an anti-pass campaign on Monday the 21st. As the small crowd approached the station, most of the marchers, including Sobukwe, were arrested and charged with sedition. The world should remember the contingency and fragility of the international human rights law system that we so easily take for granted today. The commission completed this task, under the chairmanship of Eleanor Roosevelt, when it finalised the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Courtesy BaileySeippel Gallery/BAHA Source. (2000) Focus: 'Lest We Forget', Sunday World, 19 March. About 69 Blacks were killed and more than 180 wounded, some 50 women and children being among the victims. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Some of them had been on duty for over twenty-four hours without respite. The PAC and the African National Congress, another antiapartheid party, were banned. Our work on the Sustainable Development Goals. March 21 Massacre in Sharpeville In the Black township of Sharpeville, near Johannesburg, South Africa, Afrikaner police open fire on a group of unarmed Black South African demonstrators,. Ingrid de Kok was a child living on a mining compound near Johannesburg where her father worked at the time of the Sharpeville massacre. His protest was ignored, and the government turned a blind eye to the increasing protests from industrialists and leaders of commerce. This movement sought to overcome the subjugation the racist South African government and apartheid laws imposed on Blacks. During the shooting about 69 black people were killed. One of the insights was that international law does not change, unless there is some trigger for countries to change their behaviour. The adoption of the Race Convention was quickly followed by the international covenants on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and on Civil and Political Rights in 1966, introduced to give effect to the rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. By lunchtime, the crowd outside the police station had grown to an estimated 20,000 people. Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}264118S 275219E / 26.68833S 27.87194E / -26.68833; 27.87194. This, said Mr Subukwe, would cause prisons to become overcrowded, labour to dry up and the economy to grind to a halt. Many of the contemporary issues in South Africa can easily be associated with the apartheid laws which devastated the country. . Copyright 2023 United Nations in South Africa, Caption: Selinah Mnguni, a Sharpeville massacre survivor, International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. It was adopted on 21 December 1965. Significant reshaping of international law is often the result of momentous occurrences, most notably the first and second world wars. Some were shot in the back as they fled.[1]. The key developments were the adoption of Resolution 1235 in 1967, which allowed for the examination of complaints of gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms, as exemplified by the policy of apartheid, and Resolution 1503 in 1970, which allowed the UN to examine complaints of a consistent pattern of gross and reliably attested violations of human rights. International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Committee Member - MNF Research Advisory Committee, PhD Scholarship - Uncle Isaac Brown Indigenous Scholarship. All that changed following the worlds moral outrage at the killings. Only the four Native Representatives and members of the new Progressive Party voted against the Bill. Pretoria, South Africa, The blood we sacrificed was worth it - Sharpeville Massacre, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Welcome to the United Nations country team website of South Africa. Following shortly, the Group Areas Act of 1950 was enacted as a new form of legislation alongside the Population Registration Act. The same safe and trusted content for explorers of all ages. The foundation of Poqo, the military wing of the PAC, and Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the ANC, followed shortly afterwards. Sharpeville, a black suburb outside of Vereeniging (about fifty miles south of Johannesburg), was untouched by anti-apartheid demonstrations that occurred in surrounding towns throughout the 1950s. The event also played a role in South Africa's departure from the Commonwealth of Nations in 1961. [9] The Sharpeville police were not completely unprepared for the demonstration, as they had already driven smaller groups of more militant activists away the previous night. A deranged White man, David Pratt, made an assassination attempt on Dr. Verwoerd, who was seriously injured. Many of the civilians present attended voluntarily to support the protest, but there is evidence that the PAC also used coercive means to draw the crowd there, including the cutting of telephone lines into Sharpeville, and preventing bus drivers from driving their routes.