Voices of Sharpeville: The Long History of Racial Injustice

The book "Voices of Sharpeville" is the first in-depth study of the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa, which prompted the United Nations to declare apartheid a crime against humanity. It reconstructs the timeline using an extensive archive of new documentary and oral sources and identifies nearly all the victims, upending the official narrative.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 294 pages
Publication date: 17 November 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This is the first in-depth study of Sharpeville, the South African township that was the site of the infamous police massacre of March 21, 1960, the event that prompted the United Nations to declare apartheid a crime against humanity.

Voices of Sharpeville brings to life the destruction of Sharpeville's predecessor, Top Location, and the careful planning of its isolated and carceral design by apartheid architects. A unique set of eyewitness testimonies from Sharpeville's inhabitants reveals how they coped with apartheid and why they rose up to protest this system, narrating this massacre for the first time in the words of the participants themselves. Previously understood only through the iconic photos of fleeing protestors and dead bodies, the timeline is reconstructed using an extensive archive of new documentary and oral sources, including unused police records, personal interviews with survivors and their families, and maps and family photos. By identifying nearly all the victims, many omitted from earlier accounts, the authors upend the official narrative of the massacre.

Amid worldwide struggles against racial discrimination and efforts to give voices to protestors and victims of state violence, this book provides a deeper understanding of this pivotal event for a newly engaged international audience.

Weight: 480g
Dimension: 154 x 234 x 21 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032191300