Sharpeville, noun

Origin:
The name of a township for Black people near Vanderbijlpark (Gauteng Province).
1. The incident at Sharpeville police station, on the 21st of March 1960, during which 69 people were killed and 180 wounded by police at a Pan Africanist Congress gathering in protest against the pass laws; transferred sense, any similar confrontation. Also attributive.
1960 News Chronicle in J. Crwys-Williams S. Afr. Despatches (1989) 336The coloured people’s hospital at Barangwanath, Johannesburg, already filled with 140 victims of Sharpeville, is standing by for the arrival of a fully equipped 100-bed military field hospital.
1961 P. Giniewski Bantustans: Trek towards Future 8Sharpeville..has become a symbol, and people think of it with sympathy, pity and hope, as well as resentment. And so we wait, expecting news of some new Sharpeville.
1970 D.M. Sibeko in 10th Anniversary of Sharpeville (P.A.C.)Since Sharpeville PAC has elevated the Azanian liberation struggle to greater heights.
1971 Daily Dispatch 26 Oct.Our Prime Minister, Mr. B.J. Vorster,..said there were known to be churchmen and academics who were planning ‘another Sharpeville’.
1974 L.M. Mangope Place for All (c1979) 118Since Sharpeville there has been a rapidly accelerating awareness in the Black ranks of this country.
1976 Time 28 June 19South African black leaders had been warning the Pretoria government for months that unrest in Soweto could lead to another Sharpeville.
1985 Drum May 43The loss of life was as tragic as it was avoidable. That it had to happen on March 21 made it even worse. For if anything, it scraped open old wounds of people who still remember Sharpeville.
1986 J. Conyngham Arrowing of Cane 16My father added shutters, ostensibly for greater coolness and privacy but..I suspect that security was his motive. Simple calculation places them just after Sharpeville.
1986 S. Sepamla Third Generation 89The happening came to be known as Sharpeville. It was so devastating that spectres of it remain in the country even to this day.
1986 P. Maylam Hist. of Afr. People 190One effect of the post-Sharpeville crackdown was to break a commitment to non-violence that had been held dear by many African leaders.
1987 M. Melamu Children of Twilight 26How many more Sharpevilles and Sowetos were we going to have, before we all learned to live together in peace?
1988 A. Klaaste in Sunday Star 22 May 11Sharpeville happened on March 21. On exactly the same day 30 years later police shot people in a funeral procession in Langa, Uitenhage.
1990 P. Cullinan in M. Leveson Firetalk 9It was the time of the Republic, the post-Sharpeville recession. But somehow we did survive, and later, after a few years we came right.
1991 Rhodeo (Rhodes Univ.) Apr. 5Sharpeville was the day the PAC freed the people from their fear of sacrifice.
1992 D. Beresford in Guardian Weekly 26 June 6Mr Mandela announced the suspension of talks during a visit to Boipatong...At a bigger rally later, Mr Mandela said: ‘The negotiation process is completely in tatters.’ The country was back in ‘Sharpeville days,’ he added.
1992 A. Sparks in Guardian Weekly 3 July 17I was in the midst of the mini-Sharpeville that followed Mr de Klerk’s visit to the township on June 20, when the police fired point-blank, without orders and without warning, into a crowd of about 3,000 people.
2. combination
Sharpeville Day, Heroes’ Day sense 1. Also attributive.
1969 M. Benson At Still Point 43Today is March 21. Sharpeville Day.
1987 G. Davis in Weekly Mail 31 July 4It (sc. the University of Cape Town) wants workers to give up two public holidays in exchange for June 16 and Sharpeville Day on March 21.
1988 New Nation 17 Mar. 5A major date in the anti-apartheid calendar — Sharpeville Day.
1989 Weekly Mail 17 Mar. 4The 29th Anniversary of Sharpeville Day — marking the shooting by police of 69 pass protesters in March 1960 — will be commemorated by political and trade union organisations across South Africa.
1991 E. Prov. Herald 18 Mar. 2The Azanian Peoples’ Organisation has called for a ‘stayaway’ on March 21 to commemorate Sharpeville Day.
1991 L. Martin in E. Prov. Herald 2 Apr. 6I look forward to holidays such as Sharpeville Day, Soweto Day, and Biko Day being recognised paid holidays.
1992 Natal Witness 30 Dec. 9There might be objections to Youth Soweto day (June 16, named after the 1976 uprising) and Sharpeville Day (March 21) as public holidays ‘because they are linked to oppression and resistance’.
1993 R. McNeill in Sunday Times 4 Apr. 19Ordinary People, a documentary about last month’s rival Sharpeville day rallies.
1994 E. Prov. Herald 8 Sept. 1A number of public holidays, including Sharpeville Day, Kruger Day and Republic Day, will be scrapped next year.
The incident at Sharpeville police station, on the 21st of March 1960, during which 69 people were killed and 180 wounded by police at a Pan Africanist Congress gathering in protest against the pass laws; transferred sense, any similar confrontation. Also attributive.
Entry Navigation

Visualise Quotations

Quotation summary

Senses

19601994

Compounds

Sharpeville Day

Browse Related Words

By Category

Apartheid and Resistance
Apartheid
shark net, noun phrasen. phr.shebeen, nounn.
Copyright © 2025 Dictionary Unit for South African English