The row of graves of the 69 people killed by police at the Sharpeville Police Station on 21 March 1960. International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, "Outside South Africa there were widespread reactions to Sharpeville in many countries which in many cases led to positive action against South Africa"., E.g., "[I]mmediately following the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa, over 1000 students demonstrated in Sydney against the apartheid system"., United Nations Security Council Resolution 610, United Nations Security Council Resolution 615, "The Sharpeville Massacre A watershed in South Africa", "The photos that changed history Ian Berry; Sharpeville Massacre", "Sharpeville Massacre, The Origin of South Africa's Human Rights Day", "Influential religious leader with 70-years in ministry to be laid to rest", "The Sharpeville Massacre - A watershed in South Africa", "Macmillan, Verwoerd and the 1960 'Wind of Change' Speech", "Naming history's forgotten fighters: South Africa's government is setting out to forget some of the alliance who fought against apartheid. A black person would be of or accepted as a member of an African tribe or race, and a colored person is one that is not black or white. By the end of the day, 69 people lay dead or dying, with hundreds more injured. Racial and religious conflicts; conflicts between dictatorial governments and their citizens; the battle between the sexes; conflicts between management and labor; and conflicts between heterosexuals and homosexuals all stem, in whole or in part, to oppression. It was adopted on December 21 1965. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of the day that changed the course of South African history. 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. In Pretoria a small group of six people presented themselves at the Hercules police station. 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. A small donation would help us keep this available to all. Krog was one of these Afrikaners. It was one of the first and most violent demonstrations against apartheid in South Africa. Max Roach's 1960 Album We Insist! On the day passes were suspended (25 March 1960) Kgosana led another march of between 2000 and 5000 people from Langa to Caledon Square. The term human rights was first used in the UN Charter in 1945. In 1994, Mandela signed the nations first post-apartheid constitution near the site of the 1960 massacre. Unfortunately, police forces arrived and open fired on the protesters, killing ninety-six in what became known as the Sharpeville massacre. The protesters responded by hurling stones (striking three policemen) and rushing the police barricades. As an act of rebellion the passes were set alight, as seen in a picture by Ranjith Kally. Sobukwe was only released in 1969. 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. These laws restricted blacks movements within the country. 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. Selinah Mnguniwas 23 years old and already three months pregnant when she was injured in the Sharpeville massacre on 21 March 1960. This angered the officers causing them to brutally attack and tear gas the demonstrators. 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,. [4] Leading up to the Sharpeville massacre, the National Party administration under the leadership of Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd used these laws to enforce greater racial segregation[5] and, in 19591960, extended them to include women. 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). To read more witness accounts of the Sharpeville Massacre, click on the 'Witness accounts' tab above. 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. The police response to the protest became the primary cause of the massacre. A new, third level of content, designed specially to meet the advanced needs of the sophisticated scholar. The police also have said that the crowd was armed with 'ferocious weapons', which littered the compound after they fled. By the end of the day, 69 people lay dead or dying, with hundreds more injured. In March 1960, South African police shot dead 69 black protestors, sparking worldwide outrage . 1960 police killing of protesters in Transvaal (now Gauteng), South Africa. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. The reactions of white South Africans to the revelations of the Truth Commission can be divided into two main groups There are those who refuse point-blank to take any responsibility and are always advancing reasons why the commission should be rejected and regarded as a costly waste of money. A state of emergency was announced in South Africa. By lunchtime, the crowd outside the police station had grown to an estimated 20,000 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. 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. UNESCO marks 21 March as the yearly International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, in memory of the massacre. But in the aftermath of the Sharpeville massacre, the UN adopted a more interventionist stance to the apartheid state. All the evidence points to the gathering being peaceful and good-humoured. The Sharpeville massacre. 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. Following the Brown decision, grassroots African American activists began challenging segregation through protests continuing into the 1960s (Aiken et al., 2013). The quest for international support, mass mobilization, armed operations, and underground organization became the basis for the ANCs Four Pillars of Struggle. The commission completed this task, under the chairmanship of Eleanor Roosevelt, when it finalised the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. 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. But even still, southern activists worked to defend the practice of segregation. This article first appeared on The Conversation, Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. 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. Approximately 10,000 Africans were forcibly removed to Sharpeville. Choose a language from the menu above to view a computer-translated version of this page. Following shortly, the Group Areas Act of 1950 was enacted as a new form of legislation alongside the Population Registration Act. OHCHRs regional representative Abigail Noko used the opportunity to call on all decision-makers to give youth a seat at the decision-making table. 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). [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. This movement sought to overcome the subjugation the racist South African government and apartheid laws imposed on Blacks. BlackPast.org is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and our EIN is 26-1625373. This affirmed that the elimination of racial discrimination was a global challenge that affronted the respect and dignity of all human beings. 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. Unlike elsewhere on the East Rand where police used baton when charging at resisters, the police at Sharpeville used live ammunition. [2] In present-day South Africa, 21 March is celebrated as a public holiday in honour of human rights and to commemorate the Sharpeville massacre. Furthermore, the history of the African civil rights movement validated: Nationalism has been tested in the peoples struggles . Another officer interpreted this as an order and opened fire, triggering a lethal fusillade as 168 police constables followed his example. Police were temporarily paralyzed with indecision. Accessible across all of today's devices: phones, tablets, and desktops. Although blood was not shed on Krogs hands directly, she took on the shame of her race. As part of its response, the General Assembly tasked the UN Commission on Human Rights to prepare the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the first global human rights treaty. They were mild campaigns at first, but as the government became more hostile, so did ANC protests. 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 ). 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." As the campaign went on, the apartheid government started imposing strict punishments on people who violated the segregationist laws. This was in direct defiance of the government's country-wide ban on public meetings and gatherings of more than ten persons. Pogrund,B. After demonstrating against pass laws, a crowd of about 7,000 protesters went to the police station. A lot of Afrikaners felt a sense of guilt for the behavior they allowed to happen from their race towards another. [6]:p.163, The African National Congress (ANC) prepared to initiate a campaign of protests against pass laws. Take a minute to check out all the enhancements! Along the way small groups of people joined him. There was no evidence that anyone in the gathering was armed with anything other than stones. The ANC was encouraged and campaigned for democracy in South Africa. 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). Sharpeville Massacre. (1997) Focus: 'Prisoner 1', Sunday Life, 23 March. 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. Find out more about our work towards the Sustainable Development Goals. 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. "[18][19], Since 1994, 21 March has been commemorated as Human Rights Day in South Africa. Omissions? It was a system of segregation put in place by the National Party, which governed in South Africa from 1948 to 1994. The South African governments repressive measures in response to the Sharpeville Massacre, however, intensified and expended the opposition to apartheid, ushering in three decades of resistance and protest in the country and increasing condemnation by world leaders. . Other PAC members tried to stop bus drivers from going on duty and this resulted in a lack transport for Sharpeville residents who worked in Vereeniging. In the following days 77 Africans, many of whom were still in hospital, were arrested for questioning . 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. And then there are those who feel deeply involved and moved, but also powerless to deal with the enormity of the situation (Krog 221). Forego a bottle of soda and donate its cost to us for the information you just learned, and feel good about helping to make it available to everyone. Freedom Now Suite includes the composition Tears for Johannesburg in response to the massacre. 351 Francis Baard Street,Metro Park Building ,10th Floor By 9 April the death toll had risen to 83 non-White civilians and three non-White police officers. By 1960, however, anti-apartheid activism reached the town. Although the protests were anticipated, no one could have predicted the consequences and the repercussions this would have for South African and world politics. The officers asked the demonstrators to turn around; however, they did not budge. 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. The South African Police (SAP) opened fire on the crowd when the crowd started advancing toward the fence around the police station; tear-gas had proved ineffectual. In the 1960s, many of the colonial nations of Africa were gaining independence. To share with more than one person, separate addresses with a comma. But in the aftermath of the Sharpeville massacre, the UN adopted a more interventionist stance towards the apartheid state. 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 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. On 24 March 1960, in protest of the . 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 On the morning of March 21, 1960, several thousand residents of Sharpeville marched to the township's police station. After some demonstrators, according to police, began stoning police officers and their armoured cars, the officers opened fire on them with submachine guns. As a result of racial segregation, resistance from coloured people in both the United States and South Africa escalated. 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 protest that had been scheduled three days earlier was planned for noon on Monday, May 4. But change can also be prompted by seemingly minor events in global affairs such as the Sharpeville massacre the so-called butterfly effect. 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. Time Magazine, (1960), The Sharpeville Massacre, A short history of pass laws in South Africa [online], from, Giliomee et al. Confrontation in the township of Sharpeville, Gauteng Province. In response, a police officer shouted in Afrikaans skiet or nskiet (exactly which is not clear). The two causes went hand in hand in this, rocketing in support and becoming the main goal of the country - the end of segregation was the most dire problem that the Civil Rights Movement needed to solve. Sharpeville had a high rate of unemployment as well as high crime rates. The firing lasted for approximately two minutes, leaving 69 people dead and, according to the official inquest, 180 people seriously wounded. People often associate their behavior and actions from the groups they belong to. When police opened . Dr. Verwoerd praised the police for their actions. Some 20,000 Blacks gathered near a police station at Sharpeville, located about 30 miles (50 km) south of Johannesburg. A policeman was accidently pushed over and the crowd began to move forward to see what was happening. 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. Your donation is fully tax-deductible. Witness History. On March 21, an estimated 7,000 South Africans gathered in front of the Sharpeville police station to protest against the restrictive pass laws. 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. 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. The Sharpeville Massacre took place in a south african police station of Sharpeville. Do you find this information helpful? NO DEFENCE! A state of emergency was declared in South Africa, more than 11,000 people were detained, and the PAC and ANC were outlawed. The 1960 Sharpeville Massacre was the result of a peaceful protest regarding racist South African policies of apartheid. The significance of the date is reflected in the fact that. However, the police simply took down the protesters names and did not arrest anyone. 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. The Minister of Justice called for calm and the Minister of Finance encouraged immigration. In 1960, states had no binding international human rights obligations with oversight mechanisms. 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). 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. 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). The police and army arrested thousands of Africans, who were imprisoned with their leaders, but still the mass action raged. Sobukwe was only released in 1969. Philip Finkie Molefe, responsible for establishing the first Assemblies of God church in the Vaal, was among the clergy that conducted the service.[11]. (2000) Focus: 'Lest We Forget', Sunday World, 19 March. On 20 March Nana Mahomo and Peter Molotsi has crossed the border into Bechuanaland to mobilize support for the PAC. 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 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. [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. The foundation of Poqo, the military wing of the PAC, and Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the ANC, followed shortly afterwards. As the small crowd approached the station, most of the marchers, including Sobukwe, were arrested and charged with sedition. Even so and estimated 2000 to 3000 people gathered on the Commons. Some estimates put the size of the crowd at 20,000. This abuse towards people of colour in South Africa made people around the world want to protest against South Africa's government. The event also played a role in South Africa's departure from the Commonwealth of Nations in 1961. The ANC and PAC were forced underground, and both parties launched military wings of their organisations in 1961. During those five months roughly 25,000 people were arrested throughout the nation. 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. The protesters offered themselves up for arrest for not carrying their passes. African American History: Research Guides & Websites, Global African History: Research Guides & Websites, African American Scientists and Technicians of the Manhattan Project, Envoys, Diplomatic Ministers, & Ambassadors, Foundation, Organization, and Corporate Supporters. The police ordered the crowd to disperse within 3 minutes. All Rights Reserved. The Department of Home Affairs (a government bureau) was responsible for the classification of the citizenry. In 1960 it was the site of one of the earliest and most violent demonstrations against apartheid. 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. However, the governments method of controlling people who resisted the apartheid laws didnt have the same effect from the early 1970s and onward. Robert Sobukwe and other leaders were arrested and detained after the Sharpeville massacre, some for nearly three years after the incident. The victims included about 50 women and children. We hope you and your family enjoy the NEW Britannica Kids. 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".