The
Sharpeville Massacre
The movements of black South Africans had been controlled
for decades by the passes they carried which allowed the white authorities to
monitor their whereabouts and prevent the blacks from entering certain areas of
The African National Congress (ANC) and Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) launched simultaneous but
separate protest campaigns against these passes and on the 21st March 1960 a
group of between 5,000 and 7,000 black protestors in the township of Sharpville converged on the local police station offering
themselves up for arrest for not carrying their pass books.
Precisely how the violence began is unclear, and there is
little evidence to suggest that the police were provoked,
however the police opened fire on the protestors eventually killing 69 people
and injuring over 180.
The uproar among blacks was immediate, and the following
week saw demonstrations, protest marches, strikes, and riots around the country
leading the government to declare a state of emergency and imprison more than
18,000 people. The ANC and PAC were both subsequently banned as political
entities; a move which was crucial in encouraging these previously peaceful
organizations to adopt increasingly violent and aggressive tactics.
Following the massacre the UN Security Council condemned the
events in Sharpeville which signaled the beginning of the exclusion of