what caused the sharpeville massacre what caused the sharpeville massacre

But attempts to transform this non-binding moral declaration into a binding legal code were immediately bogged down in cold war disputes. Corrections? After some demonstrators, according to police, began stoning police officers and their armoured cars, the officers opened fire on them with submachine guns. On that day, demonstrations against the pass laws, which restricted the rights of the majority black population in apartheid South Africa, began in the early morning in Sharpeville, a township in Transvaal. We hope you and your family enjoy the NEW Britannica Kids. The police and army arrested thousands of Africans, who were imprisoned with their leaders, but still the mass action raged. By the end of the day, 69 people lay dead or dying, with hundreds more injured. Due to the illness, removals from Topville began in 1958. These laws restricted blacks movements within the country. Although blood was not shed on Krogs hands directly, she took on the shame of her race. The protesters responded by hurling stones (striking three policemen) and rushing the police barricades. This translates as shot or shoot. In the 1960s, many of the colonial nations of Africa were gaining independence. 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. Along with other PAC leaders he was charged with incitement, but while on bail he left the country and went into exile. In November 1961, a military branch of the party was organized with Mandela as its head. The Department of Home Affairs (a government bureau) was responsible for the classification of the citizenry. This detailed act separated tribes based on ethnics; consequently, further detailing segregation amongst the natives . The term human rights was first used in the UN Charter in 1945. Without the Sharpeville massacre, we may not have the international human rights law system we have today. In response, a police officer shouted in Afrikaans skiet or nskiet (exactly which is not clear). 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 massacre occurred at the police station in the South African township of Sharpeville, A child demonstrates in front of Johannesburgs city hall after the Sharpeville massacre (AFP/Getty), The aftermath of the Sharpeville massacre, The BritishAnti-Apartheid Movement marks the tenth anniversary of the massacre with a re-enactmentin Trafalgar Square, A family member stands next to a memorial toone of the victims of the Sharpeville massacre ahead of Human Rights Day in 2016 (AFP/Getty), Its been 60 years since dozens of protesters were killed at a peaceful anti-apartheid rally in South Africa. It was one of the first and most violent demonstrations against apartheid in South Africa. He was followed by Dr. Yusuf Dadoo, Chairperson of the South African Indian Congress and Chairperson of the underground South African Communist Party. The impact of the events in Cape Town were felt in other neighbouring towns such as Paarl, Stellenbosch, Somerset West and Hermanus as anti-pass demonstrations spread. Just after 1pm, there was an altercation between the police officer in charge and the leaders of the demonstration. In 1946, the UN established the Commission on Human Rights, whose first job was to draft a declaration on human rights. People often associate their behavior and actions from the groups they belong to. A policeman was accidently pushed over and the crowd began to move forward to see what was happening. Furthermore, a new police station was created, from which the police were energetic to check passes, deporting illegal residents, and raiding illegal shebeens. In 1946, the UN established the Commission on Human Rights, whose first job was to draft a declaration on human rights. The Sharpeville Massacre occurred on March 21, 1960, in the township of Sharpeville, South Africa. In 1960, states had no binding international human rights obligations and there were no oversight mechanisms. Now aged 84, Selinah says she is still proud of her efforts to end apartheid. A week later, a breakaway group from the ANC, the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) held its first conference in Johannesburg. Stephen Wheatley is a professor of international law at Lancaster University. Learn about employment opportunities across the UN in South Africa. Later, in the fifties and the sixties, these same goals, enlign poll taxes and literacy tests, were once again fought for by African American leaders, through advocacy and agitation. The story of March 21 1960 is told by Tom Lodge, a scholar of South African politics, in his book Sharpeville. A posseman. 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. [6]:pp.14,528 From the 1960s, the pass laws were the primary instrument used by the state to detain and harass its political opponents. 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. The Sharpeville massacre sparked hundreds of mass protests by black South Africans. The police ordered the crowd to disperse within 3 minutes. 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. That date now marks the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and without the Sharpeville massacre, we may not have the international system of human rights that we have today. Under this system there was an extended period of gruesome violence against individuals of colored skin in South Africa. Sharpeville is a township near Vereeniging, in the Gauteng province of South Africa. One way of accomplishing this was by instilling laws thatd force segregation, classification, educational requirements, and economic purposes. In the aftermath of the events of 21 March, mass funerals were held for the victims. Copyright 20102023, The Conversation Media Group Ltd. March 21 is a public holiday in South Africa in commemoration of the Sharpeville massacre. Police officers attempted to use tear gas to repel these advances, but it proved ineffectual, and the police fell back on the use of their batons. At least 180 were wounded. Professor of International Law, Lancaster University. That day about 20,000 people gathered near the Sharpeville police station. A deranged White man, David Pratt, made an assassination attempt on Dr. Verwoerd, who was seriously injured. On March 21st, 1960, the Pan Africanists Congress, an anti-Apartheid splinter organization formed in 1959, organized a protest to the National Partys pass laws which required all citizens, as well as native Africans, to carry identification papers on them at all times. The Sharpeville Massacre took place in a south african police station of Sharpeville. It authorized the limited use of arms and sabotage against the government, which got the governments attentionand its anger! OHCHRs regional representative Abigail Noko used the opportunity to call on all decision-makers to give youth a seat at the decision-making table. Stephen Wheatley explores how this tragedypaved the way for themodern United Nations, Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, Jennifer Davis: Exiled hero of South Africas anti-apartheid movement, Ralph Ziman: I hated apartheid. Omissions? On March 21, 1960, without warning, South African police at Sharpeville, an African township of Vereeninging, south of Johannesburg, shot into a crowd of about 5,000 unarmed anti-pass protesters, killing at least 69 people - many of them shot in the back - and wounding . On 24 March 1960, in protest of the . The protesters offered themselves up for arrest for not carrying their passes. Reddy. The ban remained in effect until August 31, 1960. Our work on the Sustainable Development Goals. The commission completed this task, under the chairmanship of Eleanor Roosevelt, when it finalised the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. The Sharpeville Massacre awakened the international community to the horrors of apartheid. [3], South African governments since the eighteenth century had enacted measures to restrict the flow of African South Africans into cities. The Minister of Justice called for calm and the Minister of Finance encouraged immigration. Improved homework resources designed to support a variety of curriculum subjects and standards. This was in direct defiance of the government's country-wide ban on public meetings and gatherings of more than ten persons. After demonstrating against pass laws, a crowd of about 7,000 protesters went to the police station. The ANC and PAC were forced underground, and both parties launched military wings of their organisations in 1961. The incident resulted in the largest number of South African deaths (up to that point) in a protest against apartheid . The logjam was only broken after the Sharpeville massacre, as the UN decided to deal with the problem of apartheid South Africa. However, the nations mentality needed work - though the popularity of Civil Rights was rising, many riots and racial hate crimes continued to occur throughout the country, with many casualties resulting from them (infoplease.com). However, the 1289 Words 6 Pages I hated what it did to people, As Israelis dedicated to peace, we oppose Trump's apartheid plan, UN human rights head in unprecedented action against Indian government, Anyone can become a climate refugee. The Sharpeville Massacre, 1960 Police Attack Demonstrators in Sharpeville, March 21, 1960 Few events loom larger in the history of the apartheid regime than those of the afternoon of March 21, 1960, in Sharpeville, South Africa. March 21, is celebrated as a public holiday in honor of human rights and to commemorate the . The moral outrage surrounding these events led the United Nations General Assembly to pronounce 21 March as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which recognized racism as a gross human rights violation. The police were armed with firearms, including Sten submachine guns and LeeEnfield rifles. The police also have said that the crowd was armed with 'ferocious weapons', which littered the compound after they fled. This caused many other countries to criticize South Africas apartheid policy. At 13h15 a small scuffle began near the entrance of the police station. The people of South Africa struggle day by day to reverse the most cruel, yet well-crafted, horrific tactic of social engineering. The concept behind apartheid emerged in 1948 when the nationalist party took over government, and the all-white government enforced racial segregation under a system of legislation . It also came to symbolize that struggle. Many people set out for work on bicycles or on foot, but some were intimidated by PAC members who threatened to burn their passes or "lay hands on them"if they went to work (Reverend Ambrose Reeves, 1966). The 1960 Sharpeville Massacre was the result of a peaceful protest regarding racist South African policies of apartheid. 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. During those five months roughly 25,000 people were arrested throughout the nation. 26 Black policemen and 365 Black civilians were injured no White police men were killed and only 60 were injured. Kgosana agreed to disperse the protestors in if a meeting with J B Vorster, then Minister of Justice, could be secured. There were also youth problems because many children joined gangs and were affiliated with crimes instead of schools. The policemen were apparently jittery after a recent event in Durban where nine policemen were shot. By 1960, however, anti-apartheid activism reached the town. 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. On March 21, an estimated 7,000 South Africans gathered in front of the Sharpeville police station to protest against the restrictive pass laws. There was no evidence that anyone in the gathering was armed with anything other than stones. [21], In 1998, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) found that the police actions constituted "gross human rights violations in that excessive force was unnecessarily used to stop a gathering of unarmed people. These resolutions established two important principles: that the human rights provisions in the UN Charter created binding obligations for member states, and that the UN could intervene directly in situations involving serious violations of human rights. The officers asked the demonstrators to turn around; however, they did not budge. Following the Sharpeville massacre, as it came to be known, the death toll rose to 69 and the number of injuries to 180. The presence of armoured vehicles and air force fighter jets overhead also pointed to unnecessary provocation, especially as the crowd was unarmed and determined to stage a non-violent protest. African Americans demonstrated their frustration with lack of progress on the issue through non-violent means and campaigns led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr (Bourne, In a march against segregation and barriers for African-American voting rights, peaceful marchers were exposed to harsh treatment by the police, 50 being hospitalized by the terrorism inflicted on them (civilrights.org). As the number of UN members from Africa increased, the commission reversed its no power to act position and turned its attention to the human rights situation in South Africa. Journalists who rushed there from other areas, after receiving word that the campaign was a runaway success confirmed "that for all their singing and shouting the crowd's mood was more festive than belligerent" (David M. Sibeko, 1976). The Sharpeville massacre sparked hundreds of mass protests by black South Africans, many of which were ruthlessly and violently crushed by the South African police and military. Sobukwe subsequently announced that: On the morning of 21 March, PAC members walked around Sharpeville waking people up and urging them to take part in the demonstration. Eyewitness accounts attest to the fact that the people were given no warning to disperse. 351 Francis Baard Street,Metro Park Building ,10th Floor On 20 March Nana Mahomo and Peter Molotsi has crossed the border into Bechuanaland to mobilize support for the PAC. A lot of Afrikaners felt a sense of guilt for the behavior they allowed to happen from their race towards another. All that changed following the worlds moral outrage at the killings. This shows a significant similarity in that both time periods leaders attempted to achieve the goal of ending. 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. Half a century has passed but memories of the Sharpeville massacre still run deep. When the marchers reached Sharpeville's police station a heavy contingent of policemen were lined up outside, many on top of British-made Saracen armored cars. The enforcement of Pass Laws and the reissue of laws that restricted the. 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. The events also prompted theInternational Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discriminationwhich took effect on 4 January 1969. Sharpeville Massacre. According to his "Testimony about the Launch of the Campaign," Sobukwe declared: At the press conference Sobukwe emphasized that the campaign should be conducted in a spirit of absolute non-violence and that the PAC saw it as the first step in Black people's bid for total independence and freedom by 1963 (Cape Times, 1960). . The South African government then created the Unlawful Organizations Act of 1960 which banned anti-apartheid groups such as the Pan Africanist Congress and the African National Congress. The march leaders were detained, but released on the same day with threats from the commanding officer of Caledon Square, Terry Tereblanche, that once the tense political situation improved people would be forced to carry passes again in Cape Town. The South African government began arresting more nonconformists and banning resistance organizations, such as the African National Congress and the Pan African Congress. In order to reduce the possibility of violence, he wrote a letter to the Sharpeville police commissioner announcing the upcoming protest and emphasizing that its participants would be non-violent. The police shot many in the back as they turned to flee, causing some to be paralyzed. What happened on 21 March in Sharpeville? 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. This year, UN and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) joined South Africans in commemorating the 61st anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre, using the flagship campaign #FightRacism to promote awareness of these critical issues. [6]:p.163, The African National Congress (ANC) prepared to initiate a campaign of protests against pass laws. Knowing the democracy we have today was achieved in part because of the blood we sacrificed was worth it, she says. 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. 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. The Sharpsville Massacre was a seminal moment in the history of South Africa. Find out more about our work towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Krog was one of these Afrikaners. Business Studies. Sixty-nine Africans were killed and 186 were wounded, with most shot in the back. But even still, southern activists worked to defend the practice of segregation. [10], PAC actively organized to increase turnout to the demonstration, distributing pamphlets and appearing in person to urge people not to go to work on the day of the protest. Let's Take Action Towards the Sustainable Development Goals. In 1960 it was the site of one of the earliest and most violent demonstrations against apartheid . A protest that had been scheduled three days earlier was planned for noon on Monday, May 4. [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. These protestors included a large number of northern college students. The significance of the date is reflected in the fact that it now marks the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. 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. On this 60th anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre, the world should remember the contingency and fragility of the international human rights law system that we so easily take for granted today. Sharpeville Massacre, The Origin of South Africa's Human Rights Day [online], available at: africanhistory.about.com [accessed 10 March 2009]|Thloloe, J. Unlike elsewhere on the East Rand where police used baton when charging at resisters, the police at Sharpeville used live ammunition. Following shortly, the Group Areas Act of 1950 was enacted as a new form of legislation alongside the Population Registration Act. Within hours the news of the killing at Sharpeville was flashed around the world. Furthermore, the history of the African civil rights movement validated: Nationalism has been tested in the peoples struggles . Early on the 21st the local PAC leaders first gathered in a field not far from the Sharpeville police station, when a sizable crowd of people had joined them they proceeded to the police station - chanting freedom songs and calling out the campaign slogans "Izwe lethu" (Our land); "Awaphele amapasti" (Down with passes); "Sobukwe Sikhokhele" (Lead us Sobukwe); "Forward to Independence,Tomorrow the United States of Africa.". They were mild campaigns at first, but as the government became more hostile, so did ANC protests. The adoption of the convention was quickly followed by two 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. Plaatjie, T. (1998) Focus: 'Sharpeville Heroes Neglected', The Sowetan, 20 March.|Reverend Ambrose Reeves (1966). 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 ). [6]:p.534, By 10:00, a large crowd had gathered, and the atmosphere was initially peaceful and festive. 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. A new, third level of content, designed specially to meet the advanced needs of the sophisticated scholar. After translating an article, all tools except font up/font down will be disabled. The poet Duncan Livingstone, a Scottish immigrant from the Isle of Mull who lived in Pretoria, wrote in response to the Massacre the Scottish Gaelic poem Bean Dubh a' Caoidh a Fir a Chaidh a Marbhadh leis a' Phoileas ("A Black Woman Mourns her Husband Killed by the Police"). The argument against apartheid was now framed as a specific manifestation of a wider battle for human rights, and it was the only political system mentioned in the convention: Nazism and antisemitism were not included. The 1960 Sharpeville Massacre was the result of a peaceful protest regarding racist South African policies of apartheid. When protesters reconvened in defiance, the police charged at them with batons, tear gas and guns. By mid-day approximately 300 armed policemen faced a crowd of approximately 5000 people. But it was not until after Sharpeville that the UN made clear that the countrys system of racial segregation would no longer be tolerated. For the next two and a half decades, the commission held to this position on the basis that the UN Charter only required states to promote, rather than protect, human rights. Sobukwe was only released in 1969. T he Sharpeville massacre, the name given to the murder of 69 unarmed civilians by armed South African police, took place on 21 March 1960. As the protesters tried to flee the violent scene, police continued to shoot into the crowd. (2000) Focus: 'Lest We Forget', Sunday World, 19 March. On 21 March 1960, the police opened fire on a group of demonstrators who had gathered peacefully outside Sharpeville police station in response to a nationwide call by the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) to protest against the hated pass system; 67 people died and hundreds more were wounded. Philip Finkie Molefe, responsible for establishing the first Assemblies of God church in the Vaal, was among the clergy that conducted the service.[11]. A week after the state of emergency was declared the ANC and the PAC were banned under the Unlawful Organisations Act of 8 April 1960. The Supreme Courts decision in the famous and landmark case, Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 set a precedent for desegregation in schools. According to his "Testimony about the Launch of the Campaign," Sobukwe declared: To read more witness accounts of the Sharpeville Massacre, click on the, According to an account from Humphrey Tyler, the assistant editor at, Afrikaner Nationalism, Anglo American and Iscor: formation of Highveld Steel and Vanadium Corporation, 1960-70 in Business History", The Sharpeville Massacre: Its historic significance in the struggle against apartheid, The PAC's War against the State 1960-1963, in The Road to Democracy in South Africa: 1960-1970, The Sharpeville Massacre - A watershed in SouthAfrica, Saluting Sharpevilles heroes, and South Africa's human rights, New Books | Robert Sobukwes letters from prison, South African major mass killings timeline 1900-2012, Origins: Formation, Sharpeville and banning, 1959-1960, 1960-1966: The genesis of the armed struggle, Womens resistance in the 1960s - Sharpeville and its aftermath, Eyewitness accounts of the Sharpeville massacre 1960, List of victims of police action, 21 March, 1960 (Sharpeville and Langa), A tragic turning-point: remembering Sharpeville fifty years on by Paul Maylam, Apartheid: Sharpeville Massacre, 21 March 1960, Commission of Enquiry into the Occurrences at Sharpeville (and other places) on the 21st March, 1960, Volume 1, Johannesburg, 15 June 1960, Commission of Enquiry into the Occurrences at Sharpeville (and other places) on the 21st March, 1960, Volume 2, Johannesburg, 15 June 1960, Documents, and articles relating to the Sharpeville Massacre 1960, Editorial comment: The legacy of Sharpeville, From Our Vault: Sharpeville, A Crime That Still Echoes by J Brooks Spector, 21 March 2013, South Africa, Message to the PAC on Sharpeville Day by Livingstone Mqotsi, Notes on the origins of the movement for Sanctions against South Africa by E.S.