"The whites of South Africa understand the mentality of the black man."
−Prime Minister John Vorster
The humiliations of everyday life for the 18 million blacks in white-ruled South Africa make a mockery of that boast. Some events make the very realities of repression stand out in particularly bold relief. One was Sharpeville: in 1960, police broke up a rioting mob of blacks in this Johannesburg suburb by firing pointblank into the crowd, killing 69 and wounding 186. Last week South Africa suffered a second Sharpeville. Its name was Soweto.
Virtually on the eve...
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