Sister Mary Aidan Quinlan Memorial, Duncan Village

This memorial, in the grounds of the Catholic Church in Duncan Village, was officially unveiled on 9 November 2002. It provides an opportunity to tell the broader story of Duncan Village and resistance to apartheid in the 1950s, the activities of notorious security policemen like Donald Card and the Defiance Campaign. The context, briefly stated was that in the wake of the Defiance Campaign, a ban on gatherings and restrictions on 52 Eastern Cape leaders were imposed in terms of the Riotous Assembles Act. About 1,500 members of the Duncan Village community met at Bantu Square under the banner of the ANC on Sunday 9 November for a prayer meeting to protest the bannings. The police decided the meeting was not religious and ordered the crowd to disperse. They then opened fire with rifles, revolvers and Sten guns and dozens of people were killed. Angry and defiant, the crowd broke up into smaller groups and began to march to East London. A smaller group came across a white insurance salesman and beat him to death. Another group of youths came across the car driven by Sister Quinlan, dragged her from her car and killed her. By evening, nine people had died, including the two whites, and 27 had been injured. 32 Some accounts hold that Sister Quinlan, as a medical doctor, was popular and well-known in Duncan Village. She had been in another suburb when the police opened fire on the crowd and had rushed to Duncan Village to assist the wounded. During the night, the Catholic Church was burnt to the ground and other buildings, including the Peacock Hall and the Teacher Training College, were destroyed. The following day the violence spread to the West Bank location where the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches were burnt. The police began to systematically clamp down, arresting some people on pass law offences and deporting many others to rural areas. One hundred and seventy-eight people were arrested for murder, arson and public violence. Fifteen were charged with the murder of Sister Mary Aiden Quinlan, of whom five were convicted.