The other day I had to get a passport for our newborn daughter.  As I was running around filling out forms and securing documents, my mind wondered to what people in South Africa had to do to travel around their own country under the racially segregated system of apartheid. 

During those dark years in South Africa, the Black majority had to carry around reference books – pass books.  These books were more than an identity card like a license. They contained your name, tax code, employer details and restricted movements in white areas. 

Nonviolent resistance

Fifty years ago on March 21, 1960, a crowd of men, women and children numbering 5,000 to 7,000 Black South Africans peacefully converged on a police station in Sharpeville to protest the pass laws.  This action was part of nationwide demonstrations which consisted of blacks defying the pass laws by leaving their pass books at home and then presenting themselves to police stations to be arrested. 

After bringing in reinforcements, the police started arresting folks and then decided to fire into the crowd.  When the dust had settled, 69 people were dead and over 180 were injured.  Police Commander D.H. Pienaar callously said, "If they do these things, they must learn their lessons the hard way."

Images of the Sharpeville Massacre were displayed in all the major newspapers around the world, and the story broadcast through radio and television services.  Before the Soweto uprising sixteen years later, it was Sharpeville that exposed the world to the vicious system of apartheid. 

Related struggles

Finally, it seemed as though people worldwide were increasingly galvanizing against apartheid. As the Sharpeville Massacre was unfolding in South Africa, the United States was in the midst of the civil rights movement. The tragedy in Sharpeville further amplified the connection between the two struggles across the oceans for non-racial democracy. 

It is because of the Sharpeville Massacre that in 1966 the UN General Assembly declared that March 21 would be the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and important watershed in the human rights movement.  It placed a world spotlight on racism – no longer would victims have to deal with the ordeal as just a domestic affair.

To emphasize this, the decade 1973-1982 was the declared the First Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination.  Then the world started gathering together for a series of conferences in 1978 that was then titled the First World Conference to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination.  Now the conference is termed World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.

Not forgotten

Sharpeville fueled other liberation movements. It was in the hearts and minds of Namibians fighting for their freedom from apartheid rule in their country. Thus when Namibia attained its liberty in 1990, March 21 became their independence day – a permanent honor to the victims of the Sharpeville Massacre.  South Africa as recognizes the power of Sharpeville and has set aside March 21 as the national human rights day.

How do we honor the memory of Sharpeville today?  The answers are in the questions. Are we acting against marginalization of people, particularly indigenous peoples? Are we actively voicing our concern and acting against xenophobia?  Are we working against legislations that promote and legalize hate murder?

Nicole C. Lee is the president of TransAfrica Forum.