It is a tale almost too tragic and horrible to be told. Yet, the world can never allow itself to forget the horrific events that occurred in Sharpeville, South Africa on 21 March 1960..
By looking at the spry Nelson Mandela (b. 1918), the former African National Congress leader and president of South Africa at the World Cup games a few months ago, a young person could never surmise the pain and suffering that he and his people endured through decades of oppression under a cruel, racialist regime.
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The system of 'apartheid', whereby blacks were excluded from society and treated as a sub-human species by the white government, required them to carry 'pass books' in order to travel around their region and the country. Unlike whites, who were free to travel as they pleased, blacks needed permission from authorities. If their purpose for travel was deemed valid, they received a stamp in their pass book allowing them to continue on their way. If not, they were simply prohibited from making their trip.
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By 1960, two black political organizations, the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan African Congress (PAC), planned to publicly protest these travel restrictions. On 21 March, the PAC successfully organized a demonstration in a public area to campaign against the pass laws. Appearing without their pass books, they were subject to arrest - which was exactly what the PAC wanted to begin the fight against the unjust law. In the morning, a few hundred people turned out. By early afternoon, however, the number swelled to a figure near 20,000.
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As tensions rose, the government called in fighter jets. Buzzing just above their heads, the police hoped the crowd would be intimidated enough to disperse. Rather than take even a single foot backwards, some protesters responded by throwing rocks at the aircraft.
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At some point, the police moved to make arrests. After encountering resistance, they began firing straight into the crowd. The result: 69 dead (including eight women and ten children) and 180 wounded. In all subsequent investigations afterward, including that of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the 1990s, the 20,000 protesters were found to be completely unarmed.
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In 1996, Nelson Mandela signed the new, free South African constitution, appropriately, in Sharpeville.
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This small town near Johannesburg serves as an emphatic reminder, fifty years later, of the dangers of racism, militarism and unchecked state power. Moreover, Sharpeville underscores the ongoing struggle of the world to liberate itself from all forms of oppression. To fight oppression, which is based on fear, one needs to be fearless - and the fearless people of Sharpeville on 21 March 1960 not only spelled the beginning of the end of apartheid in their country, they inspired like-minded people (including American blacks) to take up the cause of non-violent resistance to claim their dignity - and the dignity of all man and womankind.
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(Photo: Aftermath of the Sharpeville massacre)
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J Roquen