Human Rights Day in South Africa
March 21, 1960 is a date deeply inscribed on the memories and hearts of South Africans. The events of that day, which have come to be known as the Sharpeville Massacre, spoke of unforgettable horror: the South African police opening fire on black protesters demonstrating against the Pass Laws — and shooting many in the back as they tried to flee, with women and children among the victims.
Today, South Africa celebrates Human Rights Day to ensure that the events of March 21 — and the cost paid by so many in the struggle to bring human rights to all citizens — will not be forgotten.
Many believe what happened that day at Sharpeville was the beginning of the end of apartheid. It also convinced many South Africans that opposition to the government would increase and that it would be met with greater violence. A peaceful future became less and less likely, as any possibility of a peaceful transition away from apartheid grew increasingly improbable.
In that time, there were no easy choices. For white South Africans who recognized apartheid as an immoral system, the choice was to stay and work for change or to leave. Some of those who chose to remain, or for whom leaving was not an option, saw the choice to leave as a betrayal; as rats deserting a sinking ship.
Those who left felt differently. To remain meant participating in a system they abhorred, and they believed any change from that system would not be achieved without massive violence and bloodshed. It was not much of a choice, and in the years that followed, many left. My family was among the first to leave after Sharpeville, in 1962.
As history would have it, the country did not implode as many had expected, and thankfully, the predictions of violence and chaos were wrong. Instead, it took thirty years of difficult struggle before change was achieved — but change, when it came, and the end of apartheid, were delivered by Nelson Mandela and State President Frederik de Klerk in a way that should make all South Africans proud.
On this Human Rights Day, my thoughts are with all of my fellow South Africans — those, like my family, who left and are scattered around the world, those who stayed behind to fight for freedom and justice, and those who continue to fight for a better life and a better nation today.
