Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape, holds a special place in the history of the apartheid struggle, and the Langa Memorial marks the place where police opened fire on a group of mourners commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre which took place in 1960. On the morning of Thursday 21 March 1985, a large group from the Langa Township, gathered to march to KwaNobuhle, to attend a funeral which had been banned.

The marchers were confronted by two police vehicles and a contingent of police, while passing through the outskirts of Uitenhage along the way to KwaNobuhle. The police ordered the group to disperse, and then opened fire, killing twenty. The shooting. which became known as the Langa Massacre, caused an international outcry, and a commission of enquiry (Kannemeyer Commission) was appointed to investigate the cause of the shooting.

A year after the Langa Massacre had taken place, a memorial tombstone was unveiled at the KwaNobuhle Cemetery. The tombstone was vandalised in 1987, and was re-erected in March of 1994.The Langa Memorial is erected in honour and memory of those people who lost their lives in pursuit of a better and free democratic South Africa.