The police attempted to disperse the crowd with a squadron of low flying aircraft. Three hundred police reinforcements arrived in Sharpeville to assist the local police. According to a witness a scuffle broke out outside the police station and the front row of the crowd was pushed forward as marchers at the back of the crowd wanted to see what was happening in front of them.

It was then that the police opened fire. There was panic, the people tried to flee but could not due to the massive crowd surrounding them. It was a bloodbath leaving 69 people dead and 180 wounded. More than 80% of those killed were shot in the back.

The police claimed that they were in extreme danger because the crowd were stoning them and that they were armed with weapons which littered the area when they left. Photographs taken by the press later revealed that the protestors were unarmed and only hats, bicycles, shoes and other personal belongings were left among the dead and injured bodies.

The rest of South Africa and the international community reacted with shock and horror to the Sharpeville Massacre. Almost every country in the world turned from anger to angry condemnation. Since that time international public disgust with apartheid South Africa was manifest in her total isolation from normal human contact with the rest of the world.

"The reverence of the African people for March 21st grows from the fact that the political campaign launched to attack a fundamental cornerstone of apartheid colonialism, the Pass Laws, brought them far closer to the seizure of political power than anything attempted before" - David.M.Sibeko

Memory is what enables human beings to recollect what happened in the past and reflect on it for future reference. The opportunity I was given to contribute to the "Sharpeville Remembered" Commemorative Print Portfolio compelled me to take another look at recent South African history. The confrontation with the human carnage that marred March 21st 1960, resulted in a meditation on the nature of human suffering that results from the exploitation and oppression of one people by another forced me to re-asses many notions about the world in which I find myself.

Artist statement by one of the participating artists. - Hardus Lourens

The Sharpeville Remembered Print Portfolio was produced to honor the martyrs of Sharpeville as well as to pay homage to all who died because of the oppression of the apartheid regime.

The portfolio was produced as a collaborative effort between the Department of Visual Arts and Design at the Vaal Triangle Technikon in Vanderbijlpark , South Africa and the Artist Proof Studio in Johannesburg. The portfolio was coordinated by Rodney Hopley (project leader) and Avi Sooful from the Vaal Triangle Technikon and Nhlanhla Xaba and Osiah
Masekoameng from the Artist Proof Studio.

Eleven artists from the Vaal Triangle region (which is where Sharpeville is situated) and eleven artists from Johannesburg each produced an edition of 55 prints which illustrated their individualized personal responses to the massacre. The prints were editioned in the studios of the Vaal Triangle Technikon's printmaking division and the Artist Proof Studio respectively.

The portfolio was completed to coincide with the opening of the new monument in Sharpeville on the 21st March 2002 and was exhibited in the old holding cells at the Sharpeville Police Station where the massacre took place. The new monument is adjacent to the police headquarters.

The portfolios are for sale at $2000.00 each. All proceeds from these sales will be donated to the Pholokong Children's Home which cares for children affected by HIV/Aids.

This portfolio was made possible by generous funding from the National Arts Council of South Africa, the Arts and Culture Trust of the President and the Vaal Triangle Technikon.

Sadly, the Artist Proof Studio in Johannesburg was destroyed by fire earlier this year and one of the coordinators and participating artists in this project, Nhlanhla Xaba, died in the fire. We would like to dedicate the submission of this portfolio in World Printmakers to Nhlanhla and to the Artist Proof Studio.

Rodney Hopley - project leader

Contact Details:
E mail : - rodney@ tritek.ac.za
Address: - 3 Klipriver Drive
Three Rivers
1929 South Africa
Tel : - 27 16 9509272
Mobile - 27 827870303

Images by: Godfrey Tiali, Penny George, Kim Berman, Ian Marley, Ello Asha, Lidumo Gqotso, Simon Mtunkhulu, Rodney Hopley, Gabriel Mazibuko, Trevor Thebe, Oseah Masekoameng, Nhlanhla Xaba, Hardus Lourens, Reshma Maharajh, Obed Mbele, Pontsho Sikhosana, Danny Nhleko, Jacob Molefe, Diane Victor, Jacob Motsoane, Charles Nkosi, Muzi Donga and Avi Sooful.