As we build the Reparations
Movement throughout the African World community, we should not
forget the atrocities that have been perpetrated against African
people. We should not forget that the demand for reparations
is worldwide. One such major atrocity in our history is the Sharpsville
Massacre. One of the tragedies of post apartheid South
Africa is that too much is being forgotten of the numerous atrocities
that occurred during the vicious era of the white supremacist
regime. African people should never forget history! It
is in this connection that the National Black United Front always
commemorates the March 21, 1960 Sharpsville Massacre.
African Liberation Movement forces, around the
world, commemorate the Sharpsville Massacre. This will be the
47th anniversary of this tragic event in South African history.
Just as the African in American Community in
this country demonstrated and subjected themselves to arrest
in the south during the 1950s and 1960s to protest racist segregation
laws, African people in the Sharpsville area of South Africa,
in 1960, began organizing to demonstrate against the white supremacist Pass
Laws System. The Pass Laws System in South Africa is a method
the South African Government employs to “officially” check on
the whereabouts of Black People at all times. Black people had
to carry a document much like a passport that must be stamped,
before they were allowed any movement in the country.
On December 19, 1959, the
Pan African Congress / PAC (a black conference held in Orlando,
Johannesburg), “resolved
to embark upon a campaign directed against the Pass Laws which
subject the African people to humiliation of constant arrest”.
The African American Community is familiar with police harassment
and brutality. The Pass Law System in South Africa gives the
police unlimited authority in arresting people at will.
During the week of March 20, 1960, the Pan African
Congress requested permission to hold a public meeting on Sunday.
The request to meet was refused by South African Government officials.
The Pan African Congress decided to launch the Pass Book Campaign
on March 21, by holding a rally and demonstration to protest
these vicious laws. Unable to hold public meetings, members of
the PAC called their members to meet at the Sharpsville Tennis
Court grounds. (Sharpsville is the African location known as
Vereeniging.)
According to eyewitness
accounts, at about 1:00 a.m. on March 21st, “a great number of people had assembled at
the tennis court where they were addressed on the objects of
the campaign and had explained to them the decision to surrender
peacefully to the police for arrest that day". Further eyewitness
accounts explain that, “at 1:30 a.m., a Riot Squad with two security
staff cars arrived at the scene of the meeting. Without endeavoring
to ask anybody what the gathering was about, the police started
shooting from their vehicles into the air to frighten and disperse
the crowd".
Later that morning, “a great number of armed
white people invaded the location and while they were ostensibly
patrolling the streets, intimidating people with the obvious
intentions of causing retaliation, so that they might be afforded
an excuse to carry out their objective of smashing, by brutal
force, the opposition to the Pass Laws". Leaders of the
Pan African Congress continued their planned march to the police
station in accordance with their decision that they were going
to surrender themselves for arrest. Hundreds of people followed
the leaders, singing the South African Black National Anthem.
After Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe, the first National
President of PAC, and his aides had been arrested, thousands
of unarmed Africans gathered at the police station in Sharpsville.
The white police fired on the defenseless men, women, and children.
Sixty Africans were killed on the spot and 178 were wounded.
More than 80 percent of those shot were shot in the back as they
fled. It is because of this incessant act of violence that we
commemorate the Sharpsville Massacre.
It is important that we continue to analyze
and discuss historical events that help us understand the role
of history in the liberation of African people. African
people must never forget history! Remember the Sharpsville Massacre! Get
involved! Help build the Reparations Movement!
BC columnist Conrad
W. Worrill, PhD, is the National Chairman of the National Black
United Front (NBUF). Click
here to contact Dr. Worrill. |