The Sharpeville Massacre

The Sharpeville Massacre

The first white settler's arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652. In

1707, the Dutch company stopped all immigration; for over 100 years,

no new immigrants arrived. This ended abruptly in 1806 when the

British captured the cape:

In 1814, Britain bought the cape from the Dutch and it became part of

the growing British Empire. The Boers were furious when Britain banned

slavery in its empire in 1833. From the very outset the white Boers

set up the country so that legally they controlled the whole law

making process, Government and 93% of the land. They believed in white

supremacy and deliberately took actions to keep the black people in

extreme poverty so that they had to work for white farmers and miners

for an appallingly law wage. It was not clear exactly what apartheid

meant but it definitely did not mean interrogation and it did not mean

rights for blacks

Apartheid meant 'Separateness' the separation of blacks and whites. In

reality it came not only to mean segregation but also white domination

of all other races. The Sharpeville protest was part of a world-wide

civil rights movement, which lead to the formation of protest groups

like the ANC and PAC.

We know that even though by law blacks and whites were to live

separately the needs for black workers in white areas cause a problem.

When the government in 1948 said total segregation was impossible and

that blacks in white areas could become permanent residents, it

created the issue on which 1948 Election would be fought. What we know

happened on the day, we know that the white police started shooting at

2 o'clock and that there was no warning volley so the blacks had no

chance of getting away. Also we know that 76 Africans died and that

186 were wounded. The government wanted to make sure that they whites,

blacks and coloureds lived separately, so pass laws were set up. But

there was a problem; you could not judge a person race just by looking