Honouring the legacy of the Sharpeville Massacre on Human Rights Day

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” – Nelson Mandela

ALMOST half a century ago, the American writer Gertrude Stein lay dying. Her good friend of many years, Alice Toklas, asked her: “Gertrude, what is the answer?” To which the dying writer replied—her last words—“Alice, what is the question?”

In his His Human Rights Agenda, J. Kenneth Blackwell posits that if we, as a people, are to analyse the many problems that confront us on the world stage and have any hope of identifying feasible solutions, we must accurately define the issues, zero in on the relevant facts, and avoid inflammatory political rhetoric that contributes very little to understanding. No wonder, argues Blackwell, that an ancient Chinese proverb suggests: “The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name.”

The Chinese proverb was perhaps best explicated at the World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna in 1993 by Dr Alois Mock, the foreign minister of Austria. He established what could be considered a baseline principle with which no one could seriously argue. He stated: “The human being is indeed unique; its dignity and worth do not depend on any outside authority. Human rights are not bestowed upon the individual by any state, social group, or political party—they are part of man’s very nature.”

Blackwell further asserts that what we as a people collectively determine to be the proper course of action will be the pacifying factor. As Abraham Lincoln put it: “With public sentiment, nothing can fail… without it, nothing can succeed.”

In these extremely difficult and uncertain times, as exemplified by the merciless bombing of Ukraine by Russia, we must strive to uphold the pillars of freedom. As argued by Morris B Abraham in his address Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the formulation of principles in declarations, covenants, and some UN resolutions has offered humankind a hope and vision it has never before possessed.

However, it is equally incontestable that we are now, in our living rooms—by television, camera, and radio—witnessing a scale of horror no previous generation has ever seen. Any discussion on human rights without reference to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights would be incomplete because, as many people have observed, the Declaration is one of the greatest accomplishments of the human race and, in many ways, represents its hope.

Our own Nadine Gordimer, the South African Nobel Laureate author, calls it “the essential document, the touchstone, the creed of humanity that surely sums up all other creeds directing human behaviour”. The appeal of the Universal Declaration was well illuminated by Swiss philosopher Jean Hersch, who wrote in 1981: “There is in all individuals and all cultures a need, an expectation, and a sense of these rights… This fundamental requirement is perceptible everywhere; that something is due to the human being simply because he is a human being. To advance the diversity of culture as a reason for refusing to recognise the universality of human rights can only be a very poor pretext.”

The rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration are the same rights being egregiously violated by Russia in its incessant bombing of Ukraine. How hypocritical it is that the UN has done nothing thus far to stop Russia from annihilating Ukraine. America, too, cannot absolve itself from what is taking place in Ukraine. Ironically, in his inaugural address, John F Kennedy proclaimed: “Let every nation know… that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, and oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty.”

The question is: Why does such a proclamation not apply to the Russia-Ukraine conflict? Talk is cheap. The hypocrisy of such a proclamation was best explained by an unlikely source—someone whom the media often projected differently. As observed by Max M Kampelman in his address Governments Based on Human Dignity, one of the theological roots of Osama bin Laden’s faith structure is Sayyid Qutb, who spent a year living in the US and concluded in a widely circulated work: “No one is more distant than the Americans from spirituality and piety.”

Bin Laden used observations from the Kinsey Report and a church dance he attended to conclude that promiscuity and sin dominated American society. He rejected democracy as incompatible with Islam and declared the rulers of the Muslim world to be infidels, deserving of being overthrown. His 1996 book, Declaration of War Against America, was based on these premises.

As Charles Dickens wrote in his classic novel A Tale of Two Cities, set in a time of social upheaval and change—this is best exemplified by the current crisis in Ukraine and the factional battles within South Africa's ruling party, which portend nothing but gloom for posterity. Similarly, President Jimmy Carter, in his inaugural address, stated that the American people could never be indifferent to the fate of freedom elsewhere.

In a 1977 address to the UN, Carter emphasised: “The search for peace and justice means also respect for human dignity… Thus, no member of the UN can claim the mistreatment of its citizens is solely its own business… The basic thrust of human affairs points toward a more universal demand for fundamental human rights. The US has a historical birthright to be associated with the process.”

How one wishes the US could tangibly associate itself with the suffering of Ukrainians. What happened to the commitment to never be indifferent to the fate of freedom elsewhere?

The abuse of human rights in Ukraine enjoins America and her allies to revisit the basics and re-examine their goals and objectives. We must remain a people of peace, love, and justice. M Carl Holman, in his address Human Rights, once observed that emerging from disillusion and disarray would not be accomplished simply by contrasting the eloquence of the Human Rights Declaration with the self-serving rhetoric around us.

Frederick Douglass, an ex-slave and abolitionist, once said: “The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows earnest struggle… If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favour freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the roar of its many waters… Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will… The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

To the people of Ukraine and all those suffering human rights abuses, we must not give up hope for the final triumph of mankind’s universal yearning for freedom and dignity. “But if we hope for something we do not yet see, then, in waiting for it, we show our endurance.” (Romans 8:25)

In paying tribute to the fallen heroes and heroines of the Sharpeville Massacre, I find Senator Robert Kennedy’s words fitting: “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope. And crossing each other from a million different centres of energy, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

* Dr Vusi Shongwe is the chief director for Heritage Resource Services in the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Sport, Arts, and Culture. This article is written in his personal capacity.

** The views expressed here do not reflect those of the Sunday Independent, Independent Media, or IOL.