The Sharpeville Massacre

The Sharpeville Massacre is a tragic and pivotal event in South African history on March 21, 1960. It marked a turning point in the struggle against apartheid, the South African government’s brutal system of racial segregation and discrimination.

• The massacre occurred in Sharpeville, a black township about 40 miles south of Johannesburg, South Africa.
• The event was a response to a non-violent protest organized by the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) against the pass laws, which required black South Africans to carry passbooks (also known as “dompas”) to control their movements in white-designated areas.
• An estimated 5,000 to 7,000 protesters gathered outside the Sharpeville police station to hand in their passbooks in a symbolic act of defiance.
• The police, vastly outnumbered by the crowd, panicked when someone in the crowd threw a stone at the police station, and they began firing into the crowd.
• In the ensuing chaos, 69 people were killed, and around 180 were injured, most of them shot in the back while attempting to flee the scene.
• The Sharpeville Massacre garnered international attention and outrage, which contributed to the isolation of the apartheid regime.
• The South African government declared a state of emergency on March 30, 1960, and arrested thousands of protesters in the following weeks, including many PAC and African National Congress (ANC) leaders.
• The South African government banned both the PAC and the ANC in the aftermath of the massacre.
• The massacre led to a radicalization of anti-apartheid movements, with the ANC and other organizations eventually embracing armed resistance against the apartheid regime.
• The United Nations General Assembly condemned the massacre and the apartheid system in Resolution 134, passed on April 1, 1960, marking the first time the UN officially addressed apartheid.
• The Sharpeville Massacre is now commemorated annually in South Africa as Human Rights Day, a public holiday established in 1996 after the end of apartheid.

The Sharpeville Massacre affected the struggle against apartheid and the global perception of South Africa. It brought the brutal realities of apartheid to the forefront of the international community’s consciousness and highlighted the need for change in the country. Many prominent individuals and organizations within South Africa and internationally became more actively involved in the fight against apartheid following the massacre, ultimately leading to the system’s dismantling in the early 1990s.