Sharpeville: A Massacre and Its Consequences

Lodge's study of the Sharpeville massacre is a meticulous but overstuffed history of the 1960 clash between black protestors and white policemen in the South African township of Sharpeville, which left 67 protestors dead and nearly 200 wounded, most shot in the back while running away. Lodge (Mandela) offers a detailed account of the causes and consequences of the massacre, credited for drawing global condemnation of apartheid, but his book also presents an expansive history of the South African liberation movement. Drawing on the papers of Robert Sobukwe, the first president of the Pan Africanist Congress, whose nonviolent protest preceded the Sharpeville massacre, Lodge creates a nuanced portrait of the less well-known revolutionary group within the context of more familiar players like the African National Congress, the international antiapartheid movement, and the South African state. The book is especially compelling when it focuses on the local history and politics of Sharpeville, and overall, Lodge's research strikes an impressive balance between documenting the historical facts of the clash and tracing the narratives and political momentum that ramified in its wake. (July)