South Africa Apartheid - Essay Example

South Africa Apartheid The massacre of Sharpeville was a part of the anti-apartheid struggle and anti-racist movement. As important as any ideas in fueling opposition movements was the reality of living under the harsh conditions of apartheid. The choice of strategies pursued was shaped in large measure by the actual circumstances of repression in South Africa. In other words, a black political culture of protest evolved under the impact of external ideological influences and against the backdrop of racist legislation. The Sharpeville massacre became a turning point in South African history giving rise to the international recognition and the wave of political actions against apartheid. As the anti-apartheid struggle has developed in South Africa, confronting the minority ruling group and its foreign partners with the prospect of overwhelming mass opposition, the alliance led by the ANC has had to contend with and to counter a number of divisive movements among the African majority1. These have had the covert encouragement and support of U.S. and other foreign interests. A tendency of this kind which has had to be dealt with sharply at times within the liberation movement has been that of Black ultranationalism. The Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) has been the ideological spearhead of the trend, setting itself up as a movement rival to the ANC both in South Africa and externally2. Indeed, the Sharpeville massacre in March 1960 was a consequence of the PAC policies. As the ANC by preparing for its national anti-pass law campaign of that year, the PAC jumped issuing a call for people to stand outside police stations as an anti-pass demonstration, a was the gun provocative action that gave the police an excuse for the savage order to open fire 3. One of the first steps of the Afrikaaner Nationalist government was the passage in 1950 of the Suppression of Communism Act, which has been the cornerstone of an edifice of laws for banning and penalizing opposition to apartheid. In this Act, which outlawed the South African Communist Party, the definition of Communism, its principles and aims is intentionally so broad and vague as to be applicable to virtually any opposition or criticism directed at the government or its measures. According to that definition, "the doctrine of Marxian socialism" is one "which aims at the establishment of a despotic system of government" and "which aims at bringing about any political, industrial, social, or economic change within the Union by the promotion of disturbance or disorder, by unlawful acts or omissions or by the threat of such acts or omissions or by means which include the promotion of disturbance or disorder, or such acts or omissions or threats."4 Besides outlawing the Communist Party, the Act authorized the outlawing of "any other organization . . . which engaged in activities calculated to further the achievement of any of the objects of Communism."5 The end of 1950s marked a difficult period for the ANC. The South African government stepped up banning and imprisonment to restrict action and protest. In a long, drawn-out trial set up by the government, many Congress leaders were charged with treason. Although the trial ended with acquittals for all who had been charged, it used up many of the resources of the Congress in terms of money and lawyers, and diverted the Congress from its principal mission. Before the massacre, On March 18, Sobukwe called a press conference, announcing that two weeks earlier he had written Lutuli, inviting the ANC to join in the campaign under the banner "service, sacrifice, suffering." 6 On March 20, 1960, Sobukwe announced a national 'anti-pass" campaign to be held on March 21, 1960, in which his followers were to surrender themselves at police stations without passes under the slogan "no bail, no defense, no fines." It was hoped that by insisting on arrest, the defiers would clog the jails, halt industry by their absence as workers, and thus force the government to accede to their demands. The leaders were to be in the forefront, inspiring the masses by their example of sacrifice. The PAC felt that the ANC's leaders had hung back at critical times, when the masses were prepared to forge ahead7. The night before the campaign, Sobukwe with his wife, Veronica, had prayed together for the welfare of the participants and for a successful operation. In front of 200 followers who presented themselves for arrest at the Orlando Police Department, Sobukwe stated simply: "I am Sobukwe. We have no passes and we want the police to arrest us". Elsewhere the campaign had large turnouts, especially at Langa and Nyanga townships in Cape Town and in Vanderbijlpark and Sharpeville townships near Johannesburg. At Sharpeville the crowd numbering some 5,000 to 20,000 protesters led by Myakale Tsolo was "noisy and excitable but not hostile, nor armed"8. For all their singing and shouting, the protesters were more festive than belligerent, according to one account. Upon reaching the police station, the leaders marched forward, asking the police to let them through so that they could surrender themselves for arrest for refusing to carry passes. Shortly after the PAC branch leaders had been let through into the police station, with no warning the police fired upon the assembled protesters, killing 69 people, most of them in the back, and wounding 186. At Langa, 1,000 miles away, in a similar situation, two were killed and forty-nine injured. Following the killings, the crowds went on a rampage, rioting and burning schools, public buildings, and others symbols of oppression. In all, seventy-four people died throughout the country on this day of protest that Sobukwe had planned to be peaceful. Sobukwe's plan to be arrested was accomplished. Police seized documents from his home and office and took him to Marshall Square, the central police station in Johannesburg. There news reached him of the massacre at Sharpeville9. Sobukwe's reaction was immediate. He called the ANC's day of mourning "rank opportunism." He accused the ANC of "trying to bask in the sunshine of PAC's successes." 10He criticized Lutuli for having the courage to burn his pass only after the government had suspended them. (In the aftermath of Sharpeville, the government had temporarily suspended the pass laws but did not repeal them as the PAC wanted. As the demonstrators converged on the police, the latter panicked at the size of the crowd and opened fire from behind armored cars. Sixty-nine demonstrators were killed and 180 wounded. The next three weeks had a great impact of the society and the international relations. The first step was made by the government on March 30, 1960 which declared a state of emergency. This news and information of more repression and casualties in South Africa reached the international public, the Security Council passed a resolution urging UN member states voluntarily to impose sanctions against South Africa. The resolution 134 was passed on April 1960 stating that: "the situation arisen out of the large-scale killings of unarmed and peaceful demonstrators against racial discrimination and segregation in the Union of the South Africa"11. Included in the resolution were a call for voluntary termination of new investments in South Africa and a ban on the sale of Krugerrands, suspension of export loan guarantees, a ban on nuclear contracts, and an end to the sale of computer equipment that might be used by the South African military. This resolution called the authorities to abandon apartheid and repressions. Genuine repentance requires making amends by accepting policies that empower blacks economically, which will inevitably occur at the expense of white South Africans. A serious constraint on white renunciation of economic privilege is that many South Africans do not consider themselves as belonging to one community12. Following Reeves (1966): Until Sharpeville the movements opposed to apartheid were pledged to a policy of non-violence. But on March 21, 1960, when an unarmed African crowd was confronted by 300 heavily armed police supported by five Saracen armored vehicles, an agonizing reappraisal of the situation was inevitable"13. Another important step was the banning of the PAC and ANC. After the events of the massacre, the PAC and ANC were banned from political activity. The Sharpeville shootings had a great effect on black and white communities and marked a watershed in South African history. Strikes and stayaways were called, and the South African government declared a state of emergency. ANC and PAC leaders were detained, and both organizations were banned. The event awakened national interest and international protest. Economic sanctions against South Africa were proposed at the United Nations but vetoed by Britain and the United States14. In 1960, at the Commonwealth Conference, rising criticism of the NP's policies led South Africa to withdraw from the British Commonwealth. South Africa declared itself a republic and set a pattern of increased isolation from other countries for the next two decades15. These events influenced consciousness and unity of the black population and their anti-racial activity. The Sharpeville massacre can be seen as a turning point in the African history because it raised awareness of the black population and increased international recognition of apartheid. In general, apartheid intensified during the 1960s. H. G. Verwoerd, prime minister from 1958, turned his back on international criticism of the Sharpeville shootings and increased the size of his police force, consisting mostly of Afrikaners. Through the General Law Amendment Act of 1963, the police gained the power to detain people without charge and the use of solitary confinement. The repressive system of the 1960s was in many ways personified by Verwoerd and J. B. Vorster, who rose to power as Minister of Justice. Vorster had been interned during World War II for sabotage as a member of the Ossewabrandwag (OB) or ox-wagon guard, a right-wing paramilitary group, originating in the Orange Free State, which adopted terrorist tactics against Smuts's government and celebrated Afrikaner culture. He would later become prime minister when Verwoerd was assassinated in 196616. Under Verwoerd's and Vorster's leadership, the number of individuals detained and banned rose with the outlawing of the ANC and PAC, and detention and banning as a whole (which allowed for avoidance of judicial procedure) laid the foundations of repression for the next thirty years. Verwoerd's philosophy stressed a social Darwinist approach, playing on white fears and notions of purity -- especially with regard to protection of white women. Under his leadership the "pillars" of apartheid were established. These included race definition, control over African migration, white control of politics, separation of labor, separate institutions, and separate amenities. Also, it is important to note that: "Following the 1960 Sharpeville massacre and the consequent State of Emergency, the authorities began a systematic campaign, lasting three decades, to censor writing which might present an image different from their happy smiling "Natives" of Separate Development"17. Another factor was that The Sharpeville massacre therefore marked a period of much greater separation. The creation of homelands, passes, and group areas, combined with the ideology dominating white rule, kept black South Africans almost out of sight from whites. Whites rested on the assumption that they understood their own Africans better than the outside world, which meant that they could close their ears to overseas influence and criticism and exist in a kind of segregated vacuum. This process was encouraged by Verwoerd's method of separate development that created reserves known as "homelands" that allowed for economic as well as political division. In 1959 eight (and later ten) "Bantu Homelands" were established, each with limited self-government. Ethnic identity was stressed over nationalist sentiment, the underlying approach being that of ancient Rome's "divide and rule" strategy18. Loflin (1997) comments: The Sharpeville massacre of March 1960 is useful for the periodization of South African literature, because the Sharpeville anti-pass law demonstration, which ended with the deaths of sixty-seven Africans, was the beginning of a new period of government oppression"19. The South African government conducted large-scale forced relocation of Africans, which combined with the Group Areas Act that focused on urban removal to dispossess and move great populations of Africans literally out of sight. Such a dramatic separation created severe hardships for many Africans in terms of lack of employment and general deprivation in the areas to which they were moved. Protest against increased separation and repression in the 1960s was relatively muted. This was due, in part, to the vigor with which the government carried out suppression, and to great separation, which diffused opposition. But, to a large measure, a rise in economic prosperity during this decade explains the lack of protest. The white population quite obviously reaped the fruits of this development, but black unemployment levels dropped also. Economic stability and state suppression joined to create a successful apartheid system in the 1960s. The ANC and PAC, meanwhile, had gone underground and in 1961 developed a new strategy proposed by Mandela and Sisulu together with other former Youth League members. The strategy called for direct action and the formation of an underground guerrilla army known as Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation)20. The tactics employed would be sabotage of power stations and government buildings for the next three years. The idea of an armed struggle gained currency because ANC members argued that the efforts of their nonviolent approach had been exhausted and that the government itself used violence to maintain control. In sum, South Africa always has been and remains a complex country. Operating under contradictory forces such as violence and compassion, openness and bigotry, retribution and forgiveness, beauty and squalor, political suppression and creative freedom, it emerged as a country that could experience a Sharpeville massacre. Suppression and disruption have plagued South Africa for several centuries, and many were surprised that apartheid ended without a civil war. The biggest underlying challenge to South Africa in the process of dismantling apartheid was and still is the legacy of division. Separation of peoples is so deep-rooted in South African society that progressive attempts to create unity and a new sense of nationhood constantly come up against lingering fears and prejudices. For the majority of black population, the massacre provided that sense of oneness that can make self-sacrifice possible. From 1960, South Africa became a special case at the United Nations, which officially condemned the apartheid system for violation of accepted norms of international law. From the time of the first presentation of violations against a population by the government of India, the UN consistently criticized South Africa's apartheid policy and demanded that it be dismantled and replaced with the right of self-determination for all peoples of South Africa. In many ways, the Sharpeville massacre forced the development of international law and behavior against racial discrimination. The development of international human rights law forms the basis of the radical change in international attitudes. The massacre shows that black population was able to fight against oppression and apartheid using violence and military actions and methods. Their possibilities of advancement, however, were severely constricted by the state. The massacre served to heighten the possibility of strong opposition. 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