On 21 March 1985, police opened fire on a funeral procession in Langa township outside Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape, killing peaceful protesters and sending shockwaves through South Africa and around the world.

Forty years later, acclaimed academic and author Mark Swilling revisits this pivotal moment in South African history in 1985: The Langa Massacre and the Ending of White Rule in South Africa.

The book tells the story of the massacre, the events that led to it and what followed - both in Uitenhage and across the country - while examining why 1985 became such a decisive year in the struggle against apartheid.

While the Sharpeville massacre of 1960 was followed by the banning of liberation movements, the imprisonment of resistance leaders and the strengthening of the apartheid state, the political consequences of Langa unfolded very differently.

By 1985, South Africa was governed by an increasingly militarised and authoritarian apartheid regime facing growing resistance from communities across the country. Democratic movements representing the aspirations of the black majority were finding new ways to organise mass resistance while simultaneously developing democratic alternatives at local and national level.

The Langa massacre became a defining moment in this changing balance of power.

Four years later, Nelson Mandela was released from prison. Five years after that, South Africans participated in the country's first non-racial democratic elections.

1985 examines how this transformation became possible.

At the heart of the book is the massacre itself: the killing of peaceful protesters on the dusty streets of Langa township on Sharpeville Day, 21 March 1985.

Swilling reconstructs what happened before, during and after the shootings, placing the tragedy within the wider political upheavals of the 1980s and the growing mass democratic movement that was making apartheid increasingly difficult to sustain.

But 1985 is more than an account of a historical event.

At a time when authoritarian populist regimes are gaining ground in different parts of the world, democratic movements are once again confronting difficult questions about how to resist increasingly violent, exclusionary and authoritarian forms of government.

South Africa's experience during the 1980s provides an important historical case study.

How does a democratic movement confront a powerful authoritarian state? How can mass resistance be organised without descending into prolonged civil war? Can resistance and negotiation take place simultaneously? And how can democratic alternatives be built while an undemocratic system is still in power?

South Africa's transition ultimately resulted in the negotiated dismantling of the apartheid state and the establishment of a constitutional democracy.

Understanding the events of 1985 – and particularly what happened at Langa – is therefore essential not only to understanding South Africa's past, but also to contemporary debates about democracy, political resistance and authoritarianism.

In 1985: The Langa Massacre and the Ending of White Rule in South Africa, Mark Swilling brings this critical period back into focus and argues for the importance of understanding the people, organisations, decisions and events that helped change the course of South African history.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mark Swilling is a distinguished South African academic, author and public intellectual whose work has focused extensively on governance, political change, sustainability and South Africa's democratic development. His unique perspective on the turbulent politics of the 1980s provides an important lens through which to reconsider the events surrounding the Langa massacre and the wider forces that contributed to the eventual ending of white minority rule.

'1985: The Langa Massacre and the Ending of White Rule in South Africa' is published by UJ Press