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Sharpeville and After Author(s): Humphrey Tyler, Bernardus G. Fourie, U. N. Security Council Resolution and Patrick Duncan Source: Africa Today, Vol. 7, No. 3 (May, 1960), pp. 5-8Published by: Indiana University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4184088Accessed: 25-11-2015 20:23 UTC

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SOUTH AFRICAN EMERGENCY

SHARPEVILLE and AFTER the March 21 Sharpeville massacre and subsequent events may have signaled

the turning point of modern South African history. These events are being shaped by a number of forces.

AFRICA TODAY in the foUowing pages publishes an excerpt from South Af- rican Ambassador Bernardus Fourie's speech to the United Nations-during the debate in a special session of the Security Council caUed to discuss the South African emergency-in which he defends his Government's actions.

In a contrasting exposition Humphrey Tyler, a white editor of the South African picture magazine, Drum, discueses the tragic events at Sharpeville as one of two journalist witnesses. His observations have been printed previouly in The Observer (London), and Contact (Cape Town).

Patrick Duncan, Contact's editor, contributes a first-hand report-on the 20,000-strong march by Africans to Cape Town on March 30-that also markedly contrasts with reports from Union Government sources. And from Johannesburg our correspondent writes how, for the first time, the average white citizen began to taste the fruits of total apartheid during the week-long work boycott by Africans. Another experienced observer of the South African scene gives a brief, historical account of the development of the Pan-Africanist Congress.

Also included in this special section is the ful text of the U.N. Security Council resolution calling upon the Union of South Africa to abandon its apartheid policies. (For editorial comment, see page 2.)

The Eye Witness SHARPEVILLE

THE cRowD seemed to be loosely gathered around the Saracens [armored tanks] and on the fringes

people were walking in and out. The kids were play- ing. In all there were about 3,000 [sic] people.

They seemed amiable. Suddenly there was a sharp report from the direc-

tion of the police station. There were shrill cries of "Izwe Lethu" (our land)

-women's voices, I thought. The cries came from the police station and I could see a small section of the crowd swirl around the Saracens. Hands went up in the Africanist salute.

Then the shooting started. We heard the chatter of a machine-gun, then another, then another.

There were hundreds of women, some of them laughing. They must have thought the police were firing blanks.

One woman was hit about ten yards from our car. Her companion, a young man, went back when she fell. He thought she had stumbled.

Then he turned her over and saw that her chest had been shot away. He looked at the blood on his hand and said: "My God, she's gone!"

Hundreds of kids were running, too. One little boy had on an old black coat, which he held up behixd his head, thinking, perhaps, that it might save him from the bullets. Some of the children, hardly as tall as the grass, were leaping like rabbits. Some were shot, too.

Still the shooting went on. One of the policemen was standing on top of a Saracen, and it looked as though he was firing his sten gun into the crowd. He was swinging it around in a wide arc from his hip as though he were panning a movie camera. Two other police officers were on the truck with him, and it looked as if they were firing pistols.

Most of the bodies were strewn in the road running through the field in which we were. One man who had been lying still, dazedly got to his feet, staggered a few yards then fell in a heap. A woman sat with her head cupped in her hands.

One by one the guns stopped. Before the shooting, I heard no warning to the

crowd to disperse. There was no warning volley. When the shooting started it did not stop until there was no living thing on the huge compound in front of the police station.

The police have claimed they were in desperate danger because the crowd was stoning them. Yet only three policemen were reported to have been hit by stones-and more than 200 Africans were shot down.

The police also have said that the crowd was armed with "ferocious weapons" which littered the compound after they fled.

I saw no weapons, although I looked very carefully, and afterwards studied the photographs of the death scene. While I was there I saw only shoes, hats and a few bicycles left among the bodies.

MAY 1960 5

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SOUTH AFRICAN EMERGENCY

The crowd gave me no reason to feel scared, though I moved among them without any distinguishing mark to protect me, quite obvious with my white skin.

I think the police were scared, though, and I think the crowd knew it.

That final shrill cry from the women before the shooting started certainly sounded much more like a jeer than a battle cry. And the first Africans -who fled past me after the shooting started were still laughing.

Humphrey Tyler

The Ambassador's Stand UNITED NATIONS

A SPLINTER ORGANIZATION of extremists had started A1 some time ago to organize a mass demonstration

to protest against the carrying of reference books. In passing, I might mention that the reference book was instituted when the pass system-which inci- dentally had been in operation for over a century- was abolished in 1952. The reference book consists of, one, an identity card which, under our laws, applies to male and female of all races-not only to the Bantu; two, a section of the book makes provision for noting particulars of tax payments, influx control, etc. The latter is a measure designed to counter uncontrolled flocking of unskilled labor from the rural areas to the industrial areas, where, if it is not controlled, it will create tremendous social problems, housing problems and also have a depressing effect on wages.

The essential elements of the reference book are: (a) it is intended to afford a means of identification to people, many of whom are unaccustomed to Western life and often illiterate; (b) it provides a ready means of identifying Bantu people from other countries and territories who flock to the Union in large numbers, mostly without any passports or identification papers whatever.

By intimidation of and threats to persons who do not belong to the group, the extremists managed to gather a crowd of approximately 20,000 people in a township, Sharpeville, in the Transvaal and a crowd of about 6,000 at Langa in the Cape Province.

Police were in the areas concerned to exercise nor- mal control, if needed, as is done in all well-ordered societies all over the world when large masses of demonstrators gather. At Sharpeville, some agitators immediately adopted a threatening attitude towards the police. Attempts were made to arrest some of the violators, but the crowd became more belligerent and the police were attacked with a variety of weapons: pangs, axes, iron-bars, knives, stick and firearms.

Indeed, shots were fired at the police before the police returned fire in order to defend their own lives and also to forestall what might have led to even greater and more tragic bloodshed. I need hardly say how deeply the Union Government regrets that there was this tragic loss of life.

The action that the police were forced to take must be seen against a background not known to many people outside South Africa. Not two months before the latest tragedy, a group of nine policemen was brutally battered to death by a so-called "unarmed," peace group. On another occasion a party of five was

engaged in collecting and destroying about thirty tons of the narcotic, known as marijuana, which had been collected in a routine inspection. While they were destroying the marijuana, they were set upon by an angry mob armed with sticks and axes.

I am referring to these incidents merely to point out to members of the Council that, while it is easy, when 10,000 miles removed, to criticize the authorities for having used firearms on this occasion, it is indeed asking too much of a small group of policemen to commit suicide, to stand by idly awaiting their turn to be stoned to death. The police all over the world have a difficult and dangerous, and often a rather thankless, task to perform. Surely not only the rioters are human; the police are too, and they have an ele- mentary right to defend their lives when threatened by mobs not amenable to the ordinary methods of control.

No Government can allow hundreds of thousands of its citizens to be intimidated by extremists, as the Bantu in South Africa often are; to be threatened with the most dire consequences, if they proceed with their deadly occupations and disobey the instructions of a militant group....

Bernardus G. Fourie

The U.N. Resolution

he Security Council, Having considered the complaint of 29 Member

States contained in document S/4279 concerning "the situation arising out of the large-scale killings of unarmed and peaceful demonstrators against racial discrimination and segregation in the Union of South Africa,

Recognizing that such a situation has been brought about by the racial policies of the government of the Union of South Africa and the continued disregard by the Government of the resolutions of the General Assembly calling upon it to revise its policies and bring them into conformity with its obligations and responsibilities under the Charter,

Taking into account the strong feelings and grave concern aroused among Governments and peoples of the world by the happenings in the Union of South Africa,

1. Recognizes that the situation in the Union of South Africa is one that has led to international fric- tion and if continued might endanger international peace and security;

2. Deplores that the recent disturbances in the Union of South Africa should have led to the loss of life of so many Africans and extends to the families of the victims its deepest sympathies;

3. Deplores the policies and actions of the Govern- ment of the Union of South Africa which have given rise to the present situation;

4. Calls upon the Government of the Union of South Africa to initiate measures aimed at bringing about racial harmony based on equality in order to ensure that the present situation doe not continue or recur and to abandon its policies of apartheid and racial di.scrimination;

5. Requests the Secretary-General, in consultation with the Government of the Union of South Africa, to make such arrangements as would adequately help

6 AFRICA TODAY

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SOUTH AFRICAN EMERGENCY in upholding the purposes and principles of the Charter and to report to the Security Council when- ever necessary and appropriate.

U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION

s/4299, APRIL 1, 1960

How the Whites Reacted JOHANNESBURG

EVEN IN THIS TURBULENT COUNTRY, there had never been such an upheaval as there was during the

ten days that shook South Africa. When housewives in the comfortable suburbs had

to fetch the family's daily bread and milk because African delivery "boys" stayed away from work, the taste of complete apartheid began to be appreciated. The stay-at-home general strike was an impressive protest, 90 percent successful in Johannesburg.

The activities of both the African National Con- gress (A.N.C.) and the rival, Pan-Africanist Congress (P.A.C.) were non-violent. When violence came from Africans, it came from the ugly tsotsi (i.e., young hooligan) element always present in the "locations" where Africans must live, and always (though under- standably) inclined to take advantage of the tempo- rarily localized failure of white authority. This vio- lence was directed against many individual Africans who had ignored the call to stay away from work or to burn their passes.

So little did the Government grasp the true nature of the whole situation that they were astonished by the Africans' reaction to the decision to stop arresting pass-law offenders. They did not anticipate that what was intended as temporary relief would be hailed by Africans as a permanent victory, the total abolition of the hated pass laws. A century old, these laws are an integral part of the system which tries to control and divide the available supply of unskilled black laborers between farms, mines, and urban industries. Among South African whites the illusion persists that if the pass laws were ended (or even relaxed), the economy of the country would totter to a standstill because mines and farms would lose their labor to the towns where higher wages and better conditions prevail. Although the pass laws have been criticized and condemned by every investigation in the past fityt years, the Government remains determined to restore and enforce them.

Martial law now reigns and the tormented country has taken long strides down the slope to fascism.

Nearly all African leaders are in prison, for how long no one can tell. Yet African protest is not ex- tinguished and unfamiliar new voices are being heard as the A.N.C. and P.A.C. are outlawed.

Nor has the liberal white minority been silenced. The first wave of 230 arrests on March 30 included about ten leading white members of Alan Paton's Liberal Party, men who cannot, by any stretch of imagination or fabricated evidence, be suspected of irrespolnsible thought or action. One sinister purpose perceptible behind the arrest of men like John Lang and Ernest Wentzel has been an intention on the part of the police to hamper lawyers who were busy pre- paring the Africans' case for presentation to the ju- dicial inquiry into the tragedy of the Sharpeville massacre. None the less, evidence in the possession of the Bishop of Johannesburg will reveal the pro-

vocative part played in the tragedy not only by the police but by armed white men eager to shoot. The A.N.C. and the Liberal Party have long had the benefit of expert legal aid. Lawyers get in the Government's way, as the still unfinished treason trial shows very plainly. Indeed, the Tnain object of declaring a state of emergency in this country is to substitute rough political justice for the technically correct administra- tion of criminal law by the courts.

South Africa now lies at the mercy of its Afrikaner rulers, whose tyranny has become harsher and more efficient. Though dismayed.by the grave turn of events, liberals of various shades of opinion are undaunted and they mean to carry on.

The press here is forbidden to publish anything about prison conditions, but we know that these are very sad, especially in Africa. It would be helpful if world pressure and publicity were applied to extract assurances that political prisoners (all held without trial) will be treated by the government differently than criminals, especially in the matter of food, beds, and reading and writing materials.

Satyagraha in the Cape CAPE TOWN

NE THING needs to be set straight on the record: the two great demonstrations in Cape Town, on

March 25 and 30, were not riots. They were peaceful acts of purest non-violence, up to the highest levels attained by Gandhi's satyagraha.

Violence was, of course, present during the crisis in and around Cape Town, but nearly all of it came from the side of the police. The public thrashings by the police of innocent bystanders has been telegraphed round the world. What was not so well reported was the violent and brutal way in which the police combed the township of Nyanga, smashing doors, and hitting the men they found. One, seen by Liberals in Cape Town, had had an arm broken when the police hit him with an iron bar.

In the face of this provocation, and after years of suppression by a racist government, it is a near- miracle that the two great demonstrations that oc- curred in Cape Town during the Pan Africanist cam- paign against passes were so peaceful and non-violent.

The vast throng of 30,000 that surged into Cape Town on March 30 came to ask for the release of certain arrested leaders. The move was quite spon- taneous: a great march into town had been planned for the morning of the following day. But on the morning of the 30th the police went into Langa, one of Cape Town's satellite townships for Africans, and began to beat and assault men who had not gone to work, men who, the police believed, had joined the stay-at-home protest. When the men saw this they decided to stage the next day's demonstration that day, and marched into the center of the city.

They stood around the center of power-the Caledon Square police station. They were quiet, even relaxed, and white people mingled with them with no thought of tension.

But away from the vast throng rumors flew about; thousands of white people stopped work to look out

MAY 1960 7

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SOUTH AFRICAN EMERGENCY

from their windows and to climb on roofs. A heli- copter circled the city at roof top level. Soon troops and armored cars came in and surrounded Parliament. Around them irresponsible white and Colored rowdies tried to make trouble, and fortunately did not succeed.

All this time the quiet demonstration of the Afri- cans continued. The leader, 21-year-old Philip Kgosana, negotiated with the chiefs of Cape Town's poliae. They agreed to take him to the Minister of Justice for an interview if he on his side would send home the huge crowd that he had brought. He did this, and re- turned for the interview later that afternoon. Instead of the interview-which he has never had-he was arrested.

Africans, though shocked by this betrayal, have seen enough of the power of non-violence to make them sure that non-violence has everything that is necessary for their success in the future.

Patrick Duncan

The Africanists U NTIL MARCH 21, few of South Africa's three mil-

lion whites knew more than the name of the Pan- Africanist Congress (the Africanists). Even many non-whites (Africans, Coloreds, and Indians) were openly sceptical of this new nationalist movement.

But after the Africanists launched their first cam- paign - against passes - no longer were they con- sidered a small group of trouble makers within the confines of non-white politics in South Africa. They had more success than the older African National Congress (A.N.C.) or any other non-white political organization in the Union.

Africanism as an "ideology" in South Africa be- gan in the 1940's, when a group of "Young Turks," dissatisfied with the moderate leadership of the A.N.C., founded the A.N.C. Youth League in 1944 and espoused the policy that only Africans, because of their numerical superiority, could win freedom for themselves. At the same time they acknowledged that the racial minorities were permanently settled in the Union.

The original Africanist thoughts, however, still smouldered among the ranks of the A.N.C. Dissatis- faction with the A.N.C. leadership then mounted be- cause-it was said-there was a lack of positive leadership, and too tight control by "machine" poli- ticians on the organization for selfish reasons. Also the inordinate influence (in relation to their numbers) of the white members of the Congress of Democrats- a Communist-front group-on policy decisions within the A.N.C. disturbed many Africans.

Mainly confined to the area around Johannesburg, the Africanist group in the A.N.C. gradually grew stronger, and made several unsuccessful attempts to take over the A.N.C. leadership in the Transvaal. Finally in November 1958 the Africanist group split from the A.N.C. Then in April 1959 the Pan-Afri- canist Congress was born at a meeting in Johannes- burg. It pledged to "overthrow white domination."

At its head was Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, then a lecturer in Bantu languages at the University of

the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. An uncompro- mising intellectual, Sobukwe is still a young man-in his early thirties-and combines his articulate argu- ing (in English) among friends with a ready, boyish, and almost naive grin if he is caught with an em- barrassing question.

Sobukwe's youth is characteristic of the entire Af- ricanist leadership, as evidenced by the 21-year-old who led 30,000 Africans in the march on Cape Town.

The Africanist policy has been severely criticized in South Africa because of its "African exclusive- ness." The Africanists have replied that, because of the material position of the Africans in the Union, it is only they who can be interested in the complete overhaul of the country's contemporary structure.

This reasoning has led to the widespread charge that the Africanists are anti-white.

Robert Sobukwe in reply asserts: "We aim polit- ically at the government of the Africans by the Af- ricans for the Africans, with everybody who owes his only loyalty to Africa and who is prepared to accept the democratic rule of an African majority being re- garded as an African." He adds: "We guarantee no minority rights because we are fighting precisely that group-exclusiveness which those who plead for minor- ity rights would like to perpetuate. It is our view that if we have guaranteed individual liberties, we have given the highest guarantee necessary and possible."

Under such a system, Sobukwe sees no reason why a predominantly black electorate should not return a white man to Parliament, for color will count for nothing in a "free, democratic Africa."

Though his replies to these anti-white charges are construed as contradictory, the white liberal critics always overlook a key fact pointed out by the African- ists: few whites are prepared to identify absolutely with the African's cause on the African's terms.

Internationally, the Africanists follow the Nkrumah- Azikiwe-Mboya line of Pan-Africanism, aiming even- tually for a unitary-governed continent, independent from the East and the West. This would tend more to the planned state economy of a socialist type, but po- litically, would be against the totalitarianism that has accompanied such state planning as in Communist China.

From the time of the formation of the Pan-Afri- canist Congress to the launching of their anti-pass demonstration, little was heard publicly of them as their energies were spent in building an organization and in recruiting members-now estimated to total about 25,000. During this time, however, the Afri- canists were constantly attacked by the Communists because they had not disguised their dislike for Com- munists, and Communists -had no control of the Af- ricanist leaders or the movement as a whole.

The African masses have seen the Nationalist Gov- ernment being forced to suspend temporarily the pass laws in the face of concerted opposition by the Afri- canists. However short-lived this victory, the hard fact remains that it was the first time in 10 years that the Nationalists were forced to bow to any oppo- sition. In this decade the A.N.C. has never managed to wring even the smallest of concessions from the ruling whites.

It now remains to be seen whether the A.N.C. will lose its stature among Africans, who may well turn to the Africanists-the first organization in South Af- rica effectively to challenge the white government.

8 AFRICA TODAY

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