A new book turns the official narrative about the 21 March 1960 massacre on its head. The crowd that gathered on that fateful day was actually peaceful and did not pose a threat to anyone's life.

Extensive new research, including thorough reviews of medical records and police documents, drastically increases the number of dead and injured in the Sharpeville Massacre by at least a third.

This is published in a new book, Voices of Sharpeville: The Long History of Racial Injustice, which was released internationally this week. It will be launched locally in February 2024 at an event in Sharpeville.

Using various sources, it is shown that at least 91 people (and likely more) were killed on 21 March 1960 and at least 238 injured, many of them very severely. The official police report was of 69 dead and 186 wounded.

Two emeritus professors of history, Nancy Clark of Louisiana State University and William Worger of the University of California, Los Angeles, compiled a set of eyewitness testimonies from Sharpeville's residents.

Previously understood through the iconic photos of fleeing protesters and dead bodies, the timeline is reconstructed using an extensive archive of new documentary and oral sources, including unused police records, personal interviews with survivors and their families, maps and family photos.

By identifying nearly all the victims, many omitted from earlier accounts, the authors upend the official narrative of the massacre.

Change of focus...