Essay on Sharpeville Massacre

“From 1960 to 1983 3.5 million non white South africans were taken from their home and were involuntarily put into segregated neighborhood made for them.”(rights). 1970, non whites South Africans were not allowed apart on the political side of South Africa. They were banned from doing anything with the whites of South africa; The non whites were stripped of their citizenship. About that time Nelson Mandela was 25 years old, he became involved with politics. He became a part of the ANC, or the African National Congress. The ANC began going on strikes and boycotting after the general election in South Africa in 1948 in which whites were only allowed to vote. “ At a rally on 22 June 1952, initiating protests for the ANC’s Defiance Campaign Against

In the 1960s, many of the colonial nations of Africa were gaining independence. The ANC was encouraged and campaigned for democracy in South Africa. They were mild campaigns at first, but as the government became more hostile, so did ANC protests. In November 1961, a military branch of the party was organized with Mandela as its head. It authorized the limited use of arms and sabotage against the government, which got the government’s attention—and its anger! Mandela went into hiding in 1964, he was captured, tried, and sentenced to life imprisonment. It was a sad day for black South Africa.

Mandela once said, “A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness.” (Page 32). This quote is an accurate description of all the people who supported the apartheid in South Africa starting when the National Party was elected in 1948. Knowing why this happened and what brought the apartheid to an end is vital to not making the same detrimental mistake again. Apartheid came to an end because of internal unrest, external pressure, and great leaders.

Thesis Statement: Apartheid may have been a horrible era in South African history, but only so because the whites were forced to take action against the outrageous and threatening deeds of the blacks in order to sustain their power.

Rather than promoting the integration of Blacks into White society, they preached complete isolation, even to the extent of ANC members joining the PAC party in 1959, after saying they were influenced by ‘White Communists’. However, despite this, similar to the ANC, opposition to apartheid wasn’t all as successful as they could have been. The most prominent form of opposition presented by the PAC was Sharpesville, later dubbed ‘The Sharpseville massacre’. Similar to the ANC’s ‘Defiance campaign’, this campaign had originally been intended to be peaceful, merely approaching the police station singing and showing they are ready to be arrested. However, it is assumed that following the prior campaign, law enforcement were on high alert for these protests. 69 people were killed, with all of them being Black. This still didn’t have any form of affect on the opposition of apartheid. However, it could be assumed that this reached some form of international news, informing other members of the UN, etc, to the racial crises occurring in South

The quest for international support, mass mobilization, armed operations, and underground organization became the basis for the ANC’s “Four Pillars of Struggle”. On March 21st, 1960, the Pan Africanists Congress, an anti-Apartheid splinter organization formed in 1959, organized a protest to the National Party’s “pass laws” which required all citizens, as well as native Africans, to carry identification papers on them at all times. Over five thousand individuals came to protest the cause in Sharpeville. Unfortunately, police forces arrived and open fired on the protesters, killing ninety-six in what became known as the Sharpeville massacre.

Mountain Meadows Massacre was staged on the Baker- Fancher wagon. The Massacre happened on September 11 ,1857. The Massacre was a huge deal for us in Arkansas. It was wrong on many levels and the people didn’t deserve it. Many things lead up to this tragic event, and many things happened during the this time.

Countries across the globe have rich histories full of tradition a glories events. However, these countries always have a darker side to their history, one historians and the public may often cast aside. Being a powerful and extensive nation, the United States conforms to this theory. Many times, things like wars will be glorified in the country even though they brought about tremendous loss of life. Yet there are events worse than wars that many Americans would rather not dwell upon. Two such incidents are the Memphis riots and Sand Creek massacre. These two events illustrate a more sinister past to the United States. As they were both massacres, they have many similarities in what happened yet they remain distinctly unique. Overall, both catastrophes offer a glimpse at the stark reality of how Native Americans and African Americans have been mistreated in the United States and how differently the minorities had come to be treated by the government.

The Jonestown massacre is a great example of people being manipulated and brainwashed. The fact that people can be manipulated to leave the states and go in the middle of the jungle is crazy but they thought it was for the best. Jim Jones the cult leader didn’t lie completely, he would tell parts of the truth convincing them his way was right and he told them Jonestown would be Utopia. In my opinion I do believe it could happen again, if someone is convincing enough and good at speaking it’s easy to believe they are right and even follow him or her. If it’s possible for this to happen again how could it happen in todays world?

It is first very important to understand deep history of Apartheid to actually understand the story of The Island and the messages it sends. The beginning of Apartheid marked a big turning point in South African history. In the beginning,

On November 18, 1978, followers of Jim Jones shot and killed United States Congressman Leo J. Ryan and four others traveling with him on a fact finding trip to Guyana. Ryan was there to investigate complaints about the community called "Jonestown," which was largely inhabited by his former California constituents.

For years, South Africa’s Afrikaner Nationalist Party was conducting all types of racial attacks that were raising ethical issues. Along with the South African government, they reshaped racial laws and regulations, continuing with violence against blacks. Nonwhites outnumbered whites by about 5 to 1. Violence consisted of the Sharpeville massacre, the Soweto Street death demonstration, and the death of black leader who was in police custody. Through such acts, South Africa’s direct investment rose dramatically.

Many of the contemporary issues in South Africa can easily be associated with the apartheid laws which devastated the country. The people of South Africa struggle day by day to reverse “the most cruel, yet well-crafted,” horrific tactic “of social engineering.” The concept behind apartheid emerged in 1948 when the nationalist party took over government, and the all-white government enforced “racial segregation under a system of legislation” . The central issues stem from 50 years of apartheid include poverty, income inequality, land ownership rates and many other long term affects that still plague the brunt of the South African population while the small white minority still enjoy much of the wealth, most of the land and opportunities

Imagine being systematically oppressed from the moment you exited the womb. All your civil rights, based on the amount of melanin in your skin. Drinking from the wrong water fountain, could even get you thrown into jail. Coincidently; this was the life, of black South Africans from the moment of Dutch colonization in 1652, to the first true democratic election in 1994. Apartheid, meaning “separateness” in Afrikaans; was legal segregation enforced by The National Party (NP) from 1948 to 1994. It legally imposed preexisting policies of racial discrimination on the Majority of the South African population. The entire basis of the racist policies, was the darker your complexion the less legal rights you had. Presumably this injustice, could have continued much longer if it weren’t for all involved in the fight against the NP, however the man who arguably contributed the most, was Nelson Mandela. He ended an apartheid, with both his philanthropy and political prowess. He united a nation that used to be segregated; which seemed a daunting task at the time, but through the sweat and bloodshed he achieved the impossible. This alone exhibited his heroic characteristics, but to be more precise: both his actions and inactions lead to his success. Furthermore, Mandela was both a strong leader and forgiving at the same-time. Being in the forefront of the abolishment movement, was an extremely risky move during the apartheid. He risked his life for what he believed in, and this personal

I have always thought that Nelson Mandela has been one of the most important people in history. I find it very fascinating that one man could end the Apartheid and that is why I want to find out more about this. South Africa is a country with a past of enforced racism and separation of its multi-racial community. The White Europeans invaded South Africa and started a political system known as 'Apartheid' (meaning 'apartness'). This system severely restricted the rights and lifestyle of the non-White inhabitants of the country forcing them to live separately from the White Europeans. I have chosen to investigate how the Apartheid affected people’s lives, and also how and why the Apartheid system rose and fell in South Africa.