Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Sharpeville Massacre Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays Following shortly, the Group Areas Act of 1950 was enacted as a new form of legislation alongside the Population Registration Act. Mandela went into hiding in 1964, he was captured, tried, and sentenced to life imprisonment. 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 1965 Race Convention: nazism and antisemitism were not included. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. March 21, is celebrated as a public holiday in honor of human rights and to commemorate the . 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. This shows a major similarity as they wanted to achieve the same things. The significance of the date is reflected in the fact that. 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. Sharpeville is a township near Vereeniging, in the Gauteng province of South Africa. A United Nations photograph by Kay Muldoon, Courtesy of the International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa, SATIS (Southern Africa - the Imprisoned Society). [5] The police began shooting shortly thereafter. 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 targeted protest became infamous in the Civil Rights Movement, marked Bloody Sunday and was crucial to gaining favor of the public (civilrights.org). On March 21, 1960, police in Sharpeville, South Africa, shot hundreds of people protesting laws that restricted the movement of blacks. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. A week later, a breakaway group from the ANC, the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) held its first conference in Johannesburg. Just after 1pm, there was an altercation between the police officer in charge and the leaders of the demonstration. According to an account from Humphrey Tyler, the assistant editor at Drum magazine: The police have claimed they were in desperate danger because the crowd was stoning them. [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. Throughout the 1950s, South African blacks intensified their resistance against the oppressive apartheid system. By the end of the day, 69 people lay dead or dying, with hundreds more injured. In March 1960 the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), an antiapartheid party, organized nationwide protests against South Africas pass laws. There were also youth problems because many children joined gangs and were affiliated with crimes instead of schools. Dr. Verwoerd praised the police for their actions. The 1960 Sharpeville Massacre was the result of a peaceful protest regarding racist South African policies of apartheid. Protestors asyoung as 12and13were killed. 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. 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. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. 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. On March 21, 1960. [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. 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. In 1960 it was the site of one of the earliest and most violent demonstrations against apartheid. 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 . By mid-day approximately 300 armed policemen faced a crowd of approximately 5000 people. The Sharpeville massacre. At this point the National Guard chose to disperse the crowd, fearing that the situation might get out of hand and grow into another violent protest. But change can also be prompted by seemingly minor events in global affairs such as the Sharpeville massacre the so-called butterfly effect. p. 334- 336|Historical Papers Archive of the University of the Witwatersrand [online] Accessed at: wits.ac.za and SAHA archive [link no longer available]. 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. This angered the officers causing them to brutally attack and tear gas the demonstrators. Black citizens began to resist this prejudice though and also used violence against the enforcers of Apartheid. It also came to symbolize that struggle. Pass Laws and Sharpeville Massacre | South African History Online It's been 60 years since the Sharpeville massacre, when 69 unarmed civilians were killed by armed South African police on March 21 1960. Nearly 300 police officers arrived to put an end to the peaceful protest. Sharpeville had a high rate of unemployment as well as high crime rates. Sharpeville Massacre, The Origin of South Africa's Human Rights Day [online], available at: africanhistory.about.com [accessed 10 March 2009]|Thloloe, J. Significant reshaping of international law is often the result of momentous occurrences, most notably the first and second world wars. Other protests around the country on 21 March 1960. The central issues stem from 50 years of apartheid include poverty, income inequality, land ownership rates and many other long term affects that still plague the brunt of the South African population while the small white minority still enjoy much of the wealth, most of the land and opportunities, Oppression is at the root of many of the most serious, enduring conflicts in the world today. [12], Many White South Africans were also horrified by the massacre. The only Minister who showed any misgivings regarding government policy was Paul Sauer. Its similar to an article in south africa that people have with racial segregation between black and white . People often associate their behavior and actions from the groups they belong to. Sharpeville Massacre - The Presidential Years - Nelson Mandela This translates as shot or shoot. The event was an inspiration for painter Oliver Lee Jackson in his Sharpeville Series from the 1970s.[23]. This riot was planned to be a peaceful riot for a strike on an 8-hour day, ended up turning into a battle between protesters and the police. The protesters offered themselves up for arrest for not carrying their passes. The Minister of Native Affairs declared that apartheid was a model for the world. The victims included about 50 women and children. Copyright 20102023, The Conversation Media Group Ltd. March 21 is a public holiday in South Africa in commemoration of the Sharpeville massacre. It was a system of segregation put in place by the National Party, which governed in South Africa from 1948 to 1994. Eyewitness accounts of the Sharpeville massacre 1960 It was one of the first and most violent demonstrations against apartheid in South Africa. The Sharpeville massacre, the name given to the murder of 69 unarmed civilians by armed South African police, took place on 21 March 1960. The police ordered the crowd to disperse within 3 minutes. But in the aftermath of the Sharpeville massacre, the UN adopted a more interventionist stance towards the apartheid state. Its been 60 years since the Sharpeville massacre, when 69 unarmed civilians were killed by armed South African police on March 21 1960. 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. 20072023 Blackpast.org. On the 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. 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. Kgosana agreed to disperse the protestors in if a meeting with J B Vorster, then Minister of Justice, could be secured. The officers asked the demonstrators to turn around; however, they did not budge. Mr. Tsolo and other members of the PAC Branch Executive continued to advance - in conformity with the novel PAC motto of "Leaders in Front" - and asked the White policeman in command to let them through so that they could surrender themselves for refusing to carry passes. In conclusion; Sharpeville, the imposition of a state of emergency, the arrest of thousands of Black people and the banning of the ANC and PAC convinced the anti-apartheid leadership that non-violent action was not going to bring about change without armed action. 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. Eyewitness accounts and evidence later led to an official inquiry which attested to the fact that large number of people were shot in the back as they were fleeing the scene. The ratification of these laws may have made the separate but equal rhetoric illegal for the U.S. but the citizens inside it still battled for their beliefs. 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. But even still, southern activists worked to defend the practice of segregation. 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. The police shot many in the back as they turned to flee, causing some to be paralyzed. When police opened . 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). Pass laws intended to control and direct their movement and employment were updated in the 1950s. 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. This assisted in minimizing unity between the exploited to rally against European control as it backhandedly induced submission for survival. 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). This affirmed that the elimination of racial discrimination was a global challenge that affronted the respect and dignity of all human beings. Another officer interpreted this as an order and opened fire, triggering a lethal fusillade as 168 police constables followed his example. The United Nations Security Council and governments worldwide condemned the police action and the apartheid policies that prompted this violent assault. The Population Registration Act of 1950 enacted, requiring segregation of Europeans from Afrikaans . The people were throwing their hats to the aeroplanes. In the Black township of Sharpeville, near Johannesburg, South Africa, Afrikaner police open fire on a group of unarmed Black South African demonstrators, killing 69 people and wounding 180 in a hail of submachine-gun fire. 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. The massacre was photographed by photographer Ian Berry, who initially thought the police were firing blanks. Sharpeville massacre | Summary, Significance, & Facts a photographer whose pictures of the killings caused an . To share with more than one person, separate addresses with a comma. These resolutions established two important principles: that the human rights provisions in the UN Charter created binding obligations for member states, and the UN could intervene directly in situations involving serious violations of human rights. Reports of the incident helped focus international criticism on South Africas apartheid policy. Amid confusion, two shots were fired into the air by somebody in the crowd. In the aftermath of the events of 21 March, mass funerals were held for the victims. 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. Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of the day that changed the course of South African history. 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. Sharpeville massacre - Kids | Britannica Kids | Homework Help After some demonstrators, according to police, began stoning police officers and their armoured cars, the officers opened fire on them with submachine guns. Sources disagree as to the behaviour of the crowd: some state that the crowd was peaceful, while others state that the crowd had been hurling stones at the police and that the mood had turned "ugly". In March 1960, South African police shot dead 69 black protestors, sparking worldwide outrage . The commission completed this task, under the chairmanship of Eleanor Roosevelt, when it finalised the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Unfortunately, police forces arrived and open fired on the protesters, killing ninety-six in what became known as the Sharpeville massacre. 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. 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 . In 1960, states had no binding international human rights obligations and there were no oversight mechanisms. Sharpeville massacre marked turning point in South Africa's history On March 30, the South African government declared a state of emergency which made any protest illegal. The mood of the protest had started out as peaceful and festive when there were . By lunchtime, the crowd outside the police station had grown to an estimated 20,000 people. As part of its response, the General Assembly tasked the UN Commission on Human Rights to prepare the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the first global human rights treaty. As well as the introduction of the Race Convention, Sharpeville also spurred other moves at the UN that changed the way it could act against countries that breached an individuals human rights. Britannica does not review the converted text. [17], Not all reactions were negative: embroiled in its opposition to the Civil Rights Movement, the Mississippi House of Representatives voted a resolution supporting the South African government "for its steadfast policy of segregation and the [staunch] adherence to their traditions in the face of overwhelming external agitation. The logjam was only broken after the Sharpeville massacre as the UN decided to deal with the problem of apartheid South Africa. 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). I will argue that the massacre created a major short-term crisis for the apartheid state, a crisis which appeared to Selinah Mnguniwas 23 years old and already three months pregnant when she was injured in the Sharpeville massacre on 21 March 1960. The Department of Home Affairs (a government bureau) was responsible for the classification of the citizenry. As the protesters tried to flee the violent scene, police continued to shoot into the crowd. "[6]:p.537, On 21 March 2002, the 42nd anniversary of the massacre, a memorial was opened by former President Nelson Mandela as part of the Sharpeville Human Rights Precinct.[22]. This march is seen by many as a turning point in South African history. On 20 March Nana Mahomo and Peter Molotsi has crossed the border into Bechuanaland to mobilize support for the PAC. The Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa - Owlcation He was tricked into dispersing the crowd and was arrested by the police later that day. Sharpeville Massacre. 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. Although the protests were anticipated, no one could have predicted the consequences and the repercussions this would have for South African and world politics. By the end of the day, 69 people lay dead or dying, with hundreds more injured. 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. 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. Participants were instructed to surrender their reference books (passes) and invite arrest. 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 events also prompted theInternational Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discriminationwhich took effect on 4 January 1969. apartheid: aftermath of the deadly Sharpeville demonstration, This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/event/Sharpeville-massacre, Canadian Museum for Human Rights - The Sharpeville Massacre, South African History Online - Sharpeville Massacre, Sharpeville massacre - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), Sharpeville massacre - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). That date now marks the International Day for the. That day about 20,000 people gathered near the Sharpeville police station. Robert Sobukwe and other leaders were arrested and detained after the Sharpeville massacre, some for nearly three years after the incident. Everyone should have an equal rights and better community . Often times individuals feel proud to be a member of their group and it becomes an important part of how they view themselves and their identity. The Sharpeville Massacre took place in a south african police station of Sharpeville. At least 180 were wounded. A protest that had been scheduled three days earlier was planned for noon on Monday, May 4. Early in 1960 both the ANC and PAC embarked on a feverish drive to prepare their members and Black communities for the proposed nationwide campaigns. We hope you and your family enjoy the NEW Britannica Kids.
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