On 21 March 1960 the South African police opened fire on a crowd of black protesters who were part of political campaign organized by the Pan African Congress (PAC) against pass laws. It is estimated that 69 people were killed on that day in the township of Sharpeville. This horrific event is commonly known as Sharpeville Massacre . Sharpeville massacre was the turning point in the history of political resistance to Apartheid in South Africa. Since 1994, 21 March is Human Rights Day in South Africa. March 21 is also the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in memory of the massacre. Every March 21st, Rethabile posts a poem to remember Sharpeville massacre. His Sharpeville poem for this year is posted on Black Looks: the day king walked from selma to montgomery, the tops of trees shook as in a forest, and shivered for this man who had crossed a line of centuries in the south, but even more south, we worried for our lot, resolved as we were to break you, but you to put us with our ancestors. of course there have never been questions: why shoot them in the back? why shoot them? why shoot? why? but our name got its shrine where the children now gather, for sixty-nine of us lay on the street on that day in march sixty. as others filled hospitals and covered cell-floors with clenched bodies, dachau was completed, stowe published her book, alcatraz was shut down for good, and we moved from non-whites to non-carriers of passbooks. © Rethabile Masilo He also posts a poem by South African political activist and poet Dennis Brutus. It is titled, “A Poem About Sharpeville”: What is important about Sharpeville is not that seventy died: nor even that they were shot in the back retreating, unarmed, defenseless and certainly not the heavy caliber slug that tore through a mother’s back and ripped through the child in her arms killing it Remember Sharpeville bullet-in-the-back day Because it epitomized oppression and the nature of society more clearly than anything else; it was the classic event Nowhere is racial dominance more clearly defined nowhere the will to oppress more clearly demonstrated what the world whispers apartheid with snarling guns the blood lust after South Africa spills in the dust Remember Sharpeville Remember bullet-in-the-back day And remember the unquenchable will for freedom Remember the dead and be glad. © Dennis Brutus Travel Blog Portfolio wishes all South Africans a safe and peaceful Human Rights day and ask them to learn more about Sharpeville Day. How could such atrocities happen and no one is punished?, asks Sokari Ekine: It’s been a long time coming, but change is gonna come, sang Sam Cooke about America. He could have been singing about South Africa, or the world, even. For what is baffling is how Sharpeville 1960, Soweto 1976, King’s and X’s murders, the Civil Rights movement, Mandela’s 27 years in jail, not to mention the thousands tortured and killed in South Africa, and tortured and lynched in America, what is baffling is how these have not entered the minds of all and instructed them on the evils of discrimination and segregation in all its forms. That is truly baffling to me. It is also amazingly stunning that all these things happened and almost no one got punished for it, no international hunt for the wrong-doers, no motivation to see them “brought to justice,” as George Bush the son would say about so many who had committed so less. Today is a day to remember and to know why it should be remembered Alpha Christian discusses the link between Good Friday, Human Rights Day and Sharpeville Day: In a recent column in the Beeld, Nico Botha, deals with this anomaly where the Good Friday falls on the same date as the Human Rights Day, or, even better, the commemoration of Sharpeville Day. For many the debate was whether we will loose a public holiday as workers. Where are we to find the key to link Good Friday to the significance of today, Human Rights day, Sharpeville day ? I believe the little dialogue between Jesus and Pilate helps us to start to understand this link. Michael Trapido remembers this day in his post on Thought Leader titled Sharpeville Redux and a Bit More: On that fateful day a group of between 5 000 and 7 000 people converged on the local police station in the township of Sharpeville, offering themselves up for arrest for not carrying their pass books. As the large crowd gathered the atmosphere was peaceful and festive with less than 20 police officers in the station at the start of the protest. Police and military tried using low-flying jet fighters in an attempt disperse the crowd without success. As a result the police set up Saracen armoured vehicles in a line facing the protesters and, at 13:15, incredibly, opened fire on the crowd.