SHARPEVILLE AND THE SOUTH AFRICAN DIASPORA
Some disasters seem to arrive suddenly out of nowhere, like an earthquake, while others are the result of an accumulation of bad choices and unlucky circumstances, like the death-toll on the Titanic. The Sharpeville massacre was one of this second type:-
Since the 1920s, the movements of black South Africans had been restricted by laws requiring them to carry pass books and written permissions to go from one area to another; in 1959/60 an apartheid-supporting government extended the law to include women. Inevitably, these laws, unjust from the outset, were used by unscrupulous officials to harass whoever they chose and they became a focus of anti-government feeling.
A protest was organised for March 21st 1960, in which protesters without pass books presented themselves for arrest outside the Sharpeville Police Station. Unarmed, and calm at first, the crowd slowly grew in number; figures of seven and even nineteen thousand are mentioned . We can all imagine the kind of
“you push - I shove” escalation that went on, until 150 or so nervous policemen opened fire on the crowd . Sixty-nine people were killed; all unarmed, some shot in the back and of whom 18 were women or children. Another 180 were wounded, including a disgraceful total of 50 women and children.
Riots, strikes, international condemnation followed; the increasingly paranoid government detained 18,000 people and was shunned for years by the international community:-
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The 1960 Sharpeville Massacre marked the beginning of an era of vicious apartheid and greater repression of African culture. After Sharpeville, the government imposed a State of Emergency, made mass arrests, issued thousands of bannings, and put activists who challenged apartheid laws on trial. The repression extended to African arts. Jazz was an expressive force seeking musical and social equality. The apartheid system could not tolerate it. Performances were not allowed, jazz was prohibited from radio broadcasts, and prominent musicians were threatened.
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Little wonder then, that the better-placed jazz musicians escaped if they could. The collaborators of the King Kong musical, (the Jazz Epistles and Miriam Makeba) already had passports and international connections and as they and others spread out across Europe and the US, the term “diaspora” was used, perhaps rather grandly, to describe what was happening.
In 1964 Chris McGregor relocated to the USA, and I think I`ll use that event as signaling the end of the golden era of vintage South African jazz; two decades of wonderful musical invention, of joy-filled jazz in the face of hardship and oppression. If you ever have doubts about the worth of music, or the resilience of the human spirit, give these guys a listen, and come away uplifted!
POSTSCRIPT: BE GLAD FOR THE SONG HAS NO ENDING
Despite the exodus of so much talent, there were plenty of artists who stayed on and made the now established sounds of African jazz popular with a new generation. Recorded in the mid-sixties, here is some
majuba and and some
mbaqanga from
The Elite Swingsters and
The Dark City Sisters respectively:-
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