Mandela signed the final Constitution at Sharpeville, where police had killed 69 anti-pass protesters in 1960. The choice of place connected the new constitutional order to the history of state violence and popular resistance. The Constitution promised equal citizenship, dignity, language rights and social rights, but the continuing distribution of wealth and land tested its promise in everyday life.
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Why was Mandela’s signing of the Constitution at Sharpeville symbolically significant?
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Explanation
The location connected constitutional democracy to the history of state violence.