Voices of Sharpeville

Nancy L. Clark is the Dean of the Honors College and Professor of History Emeritus at Louisiana State University. She is a Research Fellow at the University of the Free State.William H. Worger is Professor of History Emeritus at the University of California Los Angeles. He is a Research Fellow of the University of the Free State.

"Based on thorough and discerning scholarship, the book provides new evidence on the ‘neglected’ and ‘hidden’ history of Sharpeville. The authors are commended for this insightful narrative to dispel the one-sided and widely disseminated account of the Sharpeville Massacre by those who supported apartheid."Chitja Twala, University of Limpopo, South Africa"This compelling and thought-provoking book promotes the idea that the ‘truth’ in History as a discipline is itself based on shifting sand. Nancy Clark and William Worger prove that, if proof is needed, the production of history is a process of constant negotiation between evidence and interpretation where many questions are capable of a wide variety of answers."Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu, The University of South Africa"Sixty-three years after the apartheid killings at Sharpeville, the voices of the victims are heard, thanks to imaginative and dogged research by Nancy Clark and William Worger. And, startlingly, they report that the police count of 69 dead and 186 wounded – which has been accepted and endlessly repeated over the years – has always been a lie. This is a revelatory book."Benjamin Pogrund, former deputy-editor of The Rand Daily Mail, South Africa"Working intensively with Sharpeville’s community, Clark and Worger aim here to right the wrongs of a past that has left many of the dead unrecognised and the injured disregarded. They reconstruct a history of Sharpeville as a place, as a community, and as a memory and an icon. After more than fifty years, Sharpeville remains the place where the anti-apartheid struggle went global: and with this lucid and compelling book, we at last know why."David M Anderson, University of Warwick, UK“Nancy L. Clark and William H. Worger have effectively overturned established views on the Sharpeville massacre. At a basic level, Voices of Sharpeville: The Long History of Racial Injustice provides conclusive proof that the number of victims was far higher than previously thought … Yet, this monograph is not so much a revisionist history as it is a fundamental reconceptualisation of how South Africanists can and should view state violence in the apartheid era.”Mesrob Vartavarian, Journal of Southern African Studies, 50:1“Voices in Sharpeville will likely stand as the definitive, seminal account of Sharpeville and the Sharpeville Massacre for at least the next generation. In doing so, it brings the insane hatred of white supremacy into the glaring light for all to see.”Michael Loudon, African Studies Review

• 1. Contested Land: The Importance of Place 2. A Company Town 3. From Location to Township: Building Sharpeville 4. Life in Sharpeville 5. 21 March 1960 6. The Massacre 7. A Family Tragedy 8. Sharpeville and the World 9. Coda: The Role of Memory. Documents