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.

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.

Fully updated, and coming up to the present day, with new material encompassing current concerns, such as African opposition to apartheid, international anti-apartheid activities and recent events, such as the election of Cyril Ramaphosa as President of the ANC, which have led to deeper consideration of the differing ideological approaches reflected in the history, the volume gives students, with no prior background in South African history, a full historical grounding for the current situation in South Africa and its position in the world. African history, particularly global South African history encompassing as it does a site of historical racial tension, is popular in universities around the world, and with anniversaries approaching, such as the 25th anniversary of the democratic transition, and the 60th anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre, this will only increase. Even in its fourth edition it remains the only student-friendly text that focuses on the history of apartheid, as one of the most defining periods in modern history, as distinct from trying to provide a full account of the entirety of South African history.

Fully updated, and coming up to the present day, with new material encompassing current concerns, such as African opposition to apartheid, international anti-apartheid activities and recent events, such as the election of Cyril Ramaphosa as President of the ANC, which have led to deeper consideration of the differing ideological approaches reflected in the history, the volume gives students, with no prior background in South African history, a full historical grounding for the current situation in South Africa and its position in the world. African history, particularly global South African history encompassing as it does a site of historical racial tension, is popular in universities around the world, and with anniversaries approaching, such as the 25th anniversary of the democratic transition, and the 60th anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre, this will only increase. Even in its fourth edition it remains the only student-friendly text that focuses on the history of apartheid, as one of the most defining periods in modern history, as distinct from trying to provide a full account of the entirety of South African history.

This is a new and expanded edition of the volume one Africa and the West: A Documentary History from the Slave Trade to Independence. It covers the era of the slave trade through abolition and then conquest as the European scramble for Africa began. This new edition uses all of the documents in the first edition, taken from both African and European sources, as well as dozens of new photographs and over twenty new documents. Some are the expected types: missionaries' reports, government legislation and orders, slave memoirs; others are unexpected, such as a chart of the costs of African animals exported to Western zoos. Many of the sources have not previously appeared in print, or in books readily available to students. The authors have provided a detailed table of contents in place of impressionistic and often uninformative chapter titles; expanded the bibliography; added a list of websites for African historical resources; and added new maps. This book provides a unique resource both for African history survey courses and for topical courses on imperialism, colonialism, economic history, and East-West relations.

Primary source documents are valuable learning resources preferred by many teachers because they give student the chance to decipher and interpret the history themselves. "Africa and the West" presents a range of hard-to-find primary source documents on Africa from the slave trade that started in the early part of the fifteenth century to independence and the problems of the post-colonial period.