Sunshine and darkness in South Africa

Title

Language

English

Year

1960

Subject

Sharpeville Massacre, Sharpeville, South Africa, 1960.

South African Government.

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

O, say, can you see? Sunshine and "Darkness in South Africa ^TILL SPLASHING from the A inexhaustible fountain of fantasy that is London’s South Africa House are bright invitations to immigrate or tra vel to South Africa. Bewilder ed by beckonings to ‘Sunshine Plus!’ and ‘Exhilarating South Africa’, Britishers who have read their newspapers or watched television with any at tention during the past few weeks must wonder whether Sharpeville could ever have happened or whether the news of it has somehow escaped the notice of South Africa’s diplo matic representatives abroad. For what sort of people are able to find South Africa after exhi larating, or the persistent police assaults on Africans in the streets of South African cities an attraction second only to the sunshine? The invitations stand, lighting the corridors of consulates and competing against other playgrounds along the walls of travel agencies all around the world. To believe that the South African Government is merely brazening it out is to catch just the glitter on the iceberg pass ing by. The South African Government is capable of brazening it out precisely be cause it sees no reason at all for doing otherwise. No admi nistration that had so assaulted the conscience of the world by its acts would have such insult to such injury unless its own conscience remained quite clear of disquiet. The truth is, of course, that the South African Government still believes in what its own posters proclaim, and to remove them would be an admission of guilt that it is morally incapable of making. T^he South African Govv emment feels no guilt over Sharpeville because it recog nizes no wrong in killing 68 people and wounding over 200 December 1960 75 more in defense of white supre macy. If it condemns itself at all in the lobby of its heart, it does so only in whispered doubts of the prudence. Yet, conditioned by the stock res ponses of its own electorate, how could it have supposed that the outside world would have reacted with such a hurri cane of horror to the death of a few dozen black men? Was white supremacy to be risked at the cost of a little shooting? And if a salutary lesson is to be given black resistance again, is prudence to dictate the sui cide of rule? There are many who still doubt that the South African Government planned the kill ings at Sharpeville. Yet much larger crowds of protesting Af ricans than the one which as sembled outside Sharpeville po lice station have since been dis persed with warnings, baton charges, shots in the air or the wounding of a few front-line demonstrators in the legs. And surgeons giving evidence at the Sharpeville Commission of En quiry claim that three-quarters of the Sharpeville wounded whom they examined in hospi tal had all been shot in the back. Eye-witness affidavits that no warnings were given by the police emphasize the signi ficance of this. The Govern ment decided upon a massacre at the outset of the anti-pass campaign, as the show of in transigence that it had for so long been promising the coun try. It is unfortunate that the show should have excited so much censure abroad, but no lo yal Nationalist considers the show any less right or necessary than had the outside world ig nored Sharpeville altogether. J government capable of Sharpeville is unlikely to be turned from the highway of defiance it has chosen by the pluckings of protest. The cen sure of the outside world may may be inconvenient; but white South Africa has suffered cen sure before, without feeling it necessary to make any changes in its conduct. In time, as oth er countries flare into the head lines, attention will wander and the censure abate; Dr. Verwoerd himself has often spoken of apartheid as though all it needed to do was to last out its moral blockade before achieving ultimate acceptance as a sort of universal religion of race. The lunatic who believes himself to be the Archangel Michael is not open to dissuasion on the point; whatever scepticism he encoun ters, he ascribes to ignorance or wilful self-deceit. And in just the same way does white supre macy react to the rebellions of reason. What the South African Gov ernment has never ignored is the possibility of restraint. In 76 Panorama dustrial action by world trade unionism, economic sanctions by the United Nations, the phy sical prevention of further con trol over the trust territory of South-West—any of these three * forms of action would tumble the walls of apartheid merely by trumpeting. On two occasions in the past, the Government rapid ly changed its mind about utili zing convict labour to break Af rican stevedore strikes when it was threatened by Internation al Transport Federation repri sals. Commerce and industry in South Africa are already rock ing under the effects of the Emergency, and the whites are more than ever aware of the economics essential with his bible among the clear flat hori zons of the veld. He listens to commercial radio in his subur ban flat arid dodges the drear iness of work among paper backs, the films and hire-pur chase furniture. Blood is not nearly as important to him as privilege; he fights to “keep the kaffir in his place” only in or der that he should not run any risk of competitively losing his own. Such people, however shrilly they threaten it, do not die in the streets as their ulti mate sacrifice to obsession. They submit when they see at last that they have no other choice; it is so much easier after all just to go on living. The outside world has a ■ choice between break ing the back of white suprema cy and actively assisting it to survive. There can be no mo ral escape into mere acceptance. For the Saracens and sten-guns that alone can contain black resistance are bought from ab road with the profits of the vio lence they allow. Behind the policemen who fired into the fleeing throng at Sharpeville are those who trade with South Af rica, from the dock-side to the shop, exchanging or allowing the exchange of oil for diamonds, machinery for gold, bullets for fruit. They are accomplices in the force against which they protests are not only hollow but insulting. Sharpeville is yesterday now, with its 68 dead and over 200 wounded. Only in newspaper files can it still be seen, a sud denly arrested moment in the agony of Africa, twisted across the paper before being loosed in to the past. The killed and the broken of Sharpeville are now a forgetting, the fading of faces under the glare of this morn December 1960 77 ing’s front page. And along the walls of airports and travel agencies round the world re main the coloured posters ad vertising ‘Exhilarating South Africa’. If the revulsion against Sharpeville has any meaning at all, it must make another Sharpeville impossible, paying to those who died that Monday suddenly in the sunshine the respect of some purpose. * * * Journey into Learning When the journey from means to end is not too long, the means themselves are enjoyed if the end is ardently desired. A boy will toil uphill with a toboggan for the sake of the few brief moments of bliss during the descent; no one has to urge him to be industrious, and however he may puff and pant he is still happy. But if instead of the immediate reward you promised him an old-age pension at 70 hjs energy would very quickly flag. ---- BERTRAND RUSSELL Sign Language This sign was posted on the marquee of a Nebraska theater on a 95-degree day: “Our air con ditioning system has broken down. Please bare with us.” * 78 Panorama

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