Apartheid Sources Questions

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A).Source A is a letter written to the Cape Town commissioner of police by Robert Sobukwe, who was the president of the Pan African Congress.

The purpose of the letter was to make the police aware of the protest by the Black Africans on the 21st of march, against Pass Laws and to make sure that they understood that it was to be " a sustained, disciplined, non-violent campaign."

The letter was written 5 days prior the event so the police have been told that this was intended to be a peaceful event and that the crowd would " not allow themselves to be provoked into violent actions by anyone". Having read Sobukwe's letter it was clearly planned for the campaigns march to a trouble-free environment, and the letter seeks to avoid confrontation with the white police.

B). Source B gives an account on evidence presented at the inquiry held by the South African government into the massacre.

The evidence given differs dramatically. The first statement is about the number of people outside the Sharpeville police station at 8.ooam on the 21st of March. The statements were made by a police officer and a newspaper photographer.

The police man estimates 20,000 black African taking part in the praest he also describes the crowd as "aggressive and armed with weapon and stones."

In the other hand the newspaper photographer estimates 5000 prtestors giving a 15,000 discrepancy between the 2 vines . In addition the photographer,

"The crowd were in idle, holiday atmosphere ..."

"...With no weapons." So he states that no weapons were shown in his photos whereas the police officer states that weapons were included.

ii) Clearly the two pieces of evidence are contradictory.

There are a variety of possible explanations for the discrepancy in the two men's evidence.

Firstly, although both of these statements relate to the same event at 8.00am, they were given some time later and such would be influents by what happened later at 1:15 when the shooting commenced.

Secondly the physical position in which the two witnesses were standing, might explain the huge difference in the estimates. When standing in front of a crowd it makes it seem larger then it really is, While standing it can make smaller.

A third reason for the disagreement would he the position of responsibility each man holds. The policeman would have been keento play up the crowds hospitality to justify his actions otherwise charges might have been made against him and hi s men.

Where as the newspaper photographer has nothing obvious to gain or lose if he spoke the truth at the inquest.

Overall a variety of explanations can be suggested for the discrepancy in the evidence given by the 2 men at the tribunal. However the policeman's need to justify his actions and so protect and as such the photographer is most convincing cannot on the other possibilities.

Definitely both of the statements were influenced because different information from different sides would've effected their evidence.

by the time passed.

Their physical position wouldn't make much difference because the police shouldn't have started the shooting anyway.

C) Source C is not a very reliable source to be used as evidence of the situation in Sharpeville on the morning and early afternoon of 21st March 1960. Because source C is an extract from a report and published in the 'Rand daily mail ' Could be seen as a clear piece of presenting a pro- government picture of events.

The journalist clearly states that it was mostly the Africans fault for the rights in Sharpeville.

"Police were compelled to open fire"

By using vocab such as 'compelled' It makes it seem that the police .

The journalist also has numbers to identify how many Africans were shot or injured "one African was shot dead..."
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"four Africans " were injured.

By doing that he makes the reader think which damage is done, but when he says" several policeman were injured"

The 'several' high light shot the Africans were ruthless, It also follows with" causing casualties among the police" at the end of the source. So he starts article by mentioning that the police were helpless and ends up with the same subject reminding the reader that it was not the polices fault.

The article was reporting the protest outside the police at 8.00am,

Therefor the reporter would ...

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