We filled the streets, pumping our fists, voicing our displeasure with the new law to carry passbooks in all white neighborhoods. The white Dutch Boers had gone too far. We were Africans in our own country.
The Pan African Congress (PAC) helped us organize and we celebrated this small win. What happened next changed everything.
The rumble of our feet stamped out a drum beat. We stopped in front of the Sharpeville police station, singing. From somewhere a shout came. We weren’t prepared for what happened next.
The police unleashed their dogs on us. Their batons cracked our skulls. The evil white racists plowed through us. We were running and children lost their mothers in the crowd.
The streets of Sharpeville ran with our blood. But it got worse.
Bullets ripped into us. We fell in the dirt. When it was over, 69 were dead, 180 wounded, and 10,000 arrested. No one was singing anymore.
Why did the malicious police open fire on unarmed women, children and men?
Simply because we were Black - in a colonized South Africa being born African was a crime. No more! The PAC emerged as the new leaders of the fight against apartheid and began organizing guerilla fighters.
This unjust massacre let us know that we had to fight in the streets and resist the white colonialists who enforced apartheid. We refused to give up. Africa was ours! Africa is for Africans! Our sacrifice still inspires freedom fighters today!