"The government proceeded with the introduction of apartheid laws in the 1950s. An example of this was the hated pass law. This forced Black people to carry passes wherever they went. Black resistance against the regime mounted. The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) called for protest marches against the pass laws. The marches, scheduled for 21 March 1960, took place in Langa and Nyanga, Cape Town and Sharpeville, in the Transvaal. At Sharpeville, police opened fire on the demonstrators and killed 69 and wounded over 180 people. In Cape Town about 30 000 Black people marched to Parliament, but dispersed after negotiations with the police.
On 30 March, the government declared a State of Emergency, and 11 727 persons were detained. Subsequently, the government banned the African National Congress (ANC) and the PAC. The organisations were forced to go underground." quote: South African History on Line
Get well our dearest Madiba! Love from young and old and every corner of this earth.
My thoughts this morning : '
We have lived through it, yet it was hidden,
we thought it was normal, yet it wasn't .
We embraced it as this is what we knew,
we saw the different shades of skin and believed that whiter was superior,
our minds were controlled and we did not know ,
we lived in fear and thought it being normal ,
Have been made to belief that all things dark, the night, the unknown ,
the colour of ones skin, even amongst us were inferior ,
even in families and communities .
we have accepted and did not question!
Brave men and women sacrificed !
Yet today, many of us, even the educated are unable to be freed from these shackles,
still believe that white is superior, intelligent and honest!
Time, time is the essence to heal a broken nation.'
First draft : gk
