Sharpeville massacre
What was the Sharpeville massacre?
What were the pass laws in South Africa?
Why was the Sharpeville massacre a turning point in the struggle against apartheid?
How is the Sharpeville massacre commemorated today?
What happened on March 21, 1960, in South Africa?
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Sharpeville massacre, incident on March 21, 1960, in the Black township of Sharpeville, near Vereeniging, South Africa, in which police fired on a crowd of Black South Africans, killing or wounding hundreds. It was one of the most significant early confrontations between anti-apartheid protesters and the South African state, and it proved to be a turning point in the struggle against apartheid.
Background
From about 1948 to the early 1990s, South Africans lived under the policies of apartheid (Afrikaans: “apartness”). These policies, implemented by the white minority government, sanctioned racial discrimination and segregation against the non-white majority. Under apartheid South Africans were classified on the basis of state-defined racial categories (see Population Registration Act) that determined where they could live and work, the type of education they could receive, and whether they could vote.
To enforce this segregation, the government used pass laws, which required people who were not classified as white to carry documents—typically referred to as reference books (also passes, passbooks)—authorizing their presence in the areas that they would otherwise be barred from entering without having a lawful reason, such as employment. Pass laws and reference books were despised by Black South Africans and became symbols of apartheid-era restrictions.
March 21 massacre
The Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), a splinter group of the African National Congress (ANC) created in 1959, organized a countrywide demonstration on March 21, 1960, for the abolition of South Africa’s pass laws. Participants were instructed to surrender their reference books and invite arrest. Thousands of Black South Africans gathered near a police station at Sharpeville, located about 30 miles (50 km) south of Johannesburg. Estimates of the crowd size range widely, upward to 30,000, but the actual crowd size was likely about 5,000.
About 1:30 pm, without warning, police officers opened fire on the largely peaceful crowd, using submachine guns, rifles, pistols, and revolvers. Police later claimed that some demonstrators had begun stoning officers and their armored vehicles before the shooting, though many witnesses stated otherwise, and the circumstances surrounding the use of force remained controversial. Many of the wounded had been shot in the back, suggesting that they had been leaving the area when they were fired upon. Official reports indicated that about 69 Black South Africans were killed and more than 180 were wounded, some 50 women and children being among the victims. Some scholars have argued that the official casualty figures understated the true death toll and the number of wounded because of deficiencies in the government’s accounting of the victims. Nancy L. Clark and William H. Worger, in their 2023 book, Voices of Sharpeville: The Long History of Racial Injustice, assert that at least 91 people were killed and at least 238 were wounded.
News of the massacre led to peaceful protests as well as rioting around the country in the following days. By the end of the month, a state of emergency was declared in South Africa. More than 11,000 people were detained, and the PAC and ANC were banned (outlawed) on April 8.
Aftermath and impact
The massacre became a turning point in the struggle against apartheid, drawing international attention to South Africa’s racial policies and helping galvanize domestic resistance while increasing international opposition to apartheid.
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In the aftermath of the Sharpeville shootings, some senior South African government officials and others called for policy changes that would benefit the Black majority, but they were ignored, and in fact the massacre served to usher in harsher government policies to repress dissent. It also marked a turning point in anti-apartheid strategy. The PAC and ANC, which had been driven underground after their banning, moved from espousing tactics of nonviolent resistance in their quest for political change to embracing armed resistance. Both organizations formed paramilitary wings to engage in sabotage and guerrilla attacks—the PAC with Poqo and the ANC with Umkhonto we Sizwe (also called MK).
Reports of the incident helped focus international criticism on South Africa’s apartheid policy. The governments of many countries denounced the actions of the South African police and government. The United Nations had routinely condemned apartheid since 1952, and, following the massacre, a UN Security Council resolution deplored the loss of life and called for the government to abandon apartheid. In 1966 a UN General Assembly resolution called apartheid a crime against humanity.
Legacy
Sharpeville remained a powerful symbol of resistance throughout the anti-apartheid struggle and later became associated with South Africa’s democratic transition. During the apartheid era, March 21 was unofficially observed as Sharpeville Day. Following the dismantling of legislated apartheid in the early 1990s and the election of a Black majority-led government in 1994, March 21 was declared Human Rights Day in South Africa and was made an annual public holiday; it was first observed in 1995. The next year, South African President Nelson Mandela chose Sharpeville as the site at which, on December 10, he signed into law the country’s new constitution.
The day of the 1960 massacre is also commemorated on an international level. In October 1966 the United Nations designated March 21 as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination; it is observed annually.
Four sites at Sharpeville that commemorate the 1960 massacre—the Sharpeville Police Station, the Sharpeville Memorial Garden, and two grave sites at Phelindaba Cemetery—are part of the Nelson Mandela Legacy Sites, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The four sites are part of the larger collective property of 14 locations that honor the country’s long struggle for human rights and liberation and the spirit of reconciliation that guided the country’s transition to a free, nonracial democracy.
