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People killed in Sharpeville Massacre remembered

Britain News.Net
Sunday 21st March, 2010

South Africa has commemorated the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960.
South Africa has commemorated the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960.

Fifty years ago, the Sharpeville Massacre drew international condemnation when sixty-nine people were gunned down by police, acting on the instructions of the apartheid government.

The dead have been honoured with church services as part of Human Rights Day.

Many people gathered at the Roman Catholic church in Sharpeville to lay wreaths on the graves of those shot down by police, as they were trying through fear to run away.

Demonstrators had gathered outside the police station on the day of the massacre to protest against pass laws, which required all blacks to carry identity documents at all times.

No police were ever convicted over the killings, however, the Sharpeville massacre forced political activists to start an underground armed resistance in South Africa, which eventually became the ANC; the party of Nelson Mandela.
 

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AdelaHardy
03-21-10, 12:17 PM

Sharpeville Massacre commemorated in South Africa

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03-21-10, 01:15 PM

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avid
03-21-10, 02:42 PM

Sharpeville massacre commemorated

Written when Mandela was imprisoned

You have thwarted my ambitions
And scorned my life’s accomplishments
You have denied me dignity
And my freedom you have stolen
But know me, my brother
I will never yield

I feel the wrath of your anger
And the arrogance of your might
I know your venom, and your hate
And the horror in your madness
Though I fear, my brother
I must never yield

Harden your ears when people wail
Their mis’ry and desolation
To see the broken child-bodies
Sacrificed to your racist cause
But hear me my brother
I shall never yield

Though I shed bitter tears of rage
And despair eats my very soul
I have visions of brotherhood
Where all peoples are as one
And for this, my brother
I can never yield


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