Absolom Murders Analysis

The irony of it is, the that Absolom murders is a well-respected man who advocates for reform in black communities for the better. (Paton) Even though apartheid has not been put in place yet in the timeframe of the story, nearly all of the prejudice ideas and unequal policing already existed in Paton’s South Africa. In being stripped of all of the norms and morals that the tribes provided, many would leave the tribal lands and go to the city, all seeking something. Without guidance, they fall into the mix as well, they look for others like them to seek understanding of the new place they are in, and the only place they find others of their own are the lowest places of the city. Being misguided by others who were misguided by those who hold …show more content…
Though some natives turned to crime and the shots of murders rang throughout the country and frightened many whites and uneased many of the blacks, the most immense crimes committed were by the apartheid regime itself. Ultimately, they became what they feared the most or claimed they were going to prevent, killers. As aforementioned, all attempts by natives to reasonably promote their own rights were thwarted and usually faced with intense aggression by low-level authorities. This increased not only agitations between the police and natives, but it propelled the tension between the people of South Africa as a whole. Discriminately, the authorities would gaze upon the people protesting, and many times, indiscriminately, they would gun them down. This would sound over exaggerated to many, but the truth is, there are many massacres that took place during the period of apartheid. Though apartheid to many white citizens was the right thing to do as it solved the problems of insufficient resources and ideological differences, it was virtually hell upon the natives. Violence broke out often and people killings in the city would occur all too often, a prime example of this would be the the …show more content…
A large congregation of black protesters gathered in order to protest the passbook law. They protested peacefully to begin with, and simply presented themselves without the required passbooks, violating the restrictions on non-white travel, but when some protesters infuriating the police in stoning the police vehicles, the police and military called to disperse the crowd chose their method of dispersal in shooting down the crowd with automatic weapons killing 69 people (45 women and children) and injuring and disabling 186 others, many of the dead were shot in the back while attempting to flee. Afterwards, more than 11,000 people were arrested due to violating the passbook law. This captured the attention of the world and also moved the anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela to change his non-violent method of protesting and he created paramilitary forces, and the government declared a state of emergency. (“Sharpeville Massacre”) Civil war seemed as if it was about to erupt in South Africa, but it never did, because Nelson Mandela was arrested on charges of conspiring to overthrow the government and was sentenced life in prison for treason. This would not be the end of it, because once again in