steve biko black consciousness movement grade 12 essay

Steve Biko and the Black Consciousness Movement Grade 12 Essay Guide (Question and Answers)

Black Consciousness Movement Grade 12 Essay Guide (Question and Answers) and Summary: The Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) was a grassroots anti-Apartheid activist movement that emerged in South Africa in the mid-1960s out of the political vacuum created by the jailing and banning of the African National Congress and Pan Africanist Congress leadership after the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960.

Steve Biko and the Black Consciousness Movement Summary: A Legacy of Empowerment and Resistance

Stephen Bantu Biko , born in 1946 in South Africa, was a prominent anti-apartheid activist and leader of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) . The movement played a crucial role in the fight against apartheid by empowering black South Africans to embrace their identity, instilling pride and self-worth, and promoting resistance against the oppressive regime. This article will discuss Biko’s life, the origins and objectives of the Black Consciousness Movement, and the lasting impact of Biko’s ideas on South Africa and beyond.

Early Life and Influences

Steve Biko grew up in a society deeply divided along racial lines. From an early age, he was exposed to the harsh realities of apartheid, which inspired his lifelong commitment to fighting against racial oppression. As a student at Lovedale High School , Biko encountered the writings of Frantz Fanon , a psychiatrist and philosopher from Martinique who advocated for the liberation of colonized peoples through mental emancipation. Fanon’s ideas influenced Biko’s development of the Black Consciousness philosophy.

Formation of the Black Consciousness Movement

In 1968, Biko co-founded the South African Students’ Organisation (SASO) with other like-minded black students. SASO aimed to provide a platform for black students to challenge apartheid and create a sense of unity among them. The organization became the backbone of the Black Consciousness Movement, which sought to empower black South Africans by encouraging them to embrace their identity and value their cultural heritage. By fostering a strong sense of self-worth, the BCM aimed to break down the psychological barriers imposed by apartheid.

Philosophy and Goals

Central to the Black Consciousness Movement was the idea that black South Africans needed to liberate themselves from the mental chains of apartheid. The movement emphasized the importance of self-reliance and self-determination, rejecting the notion that white people were necessary for the liberation of black South Africans. Instead, Biko and the BCM insisted that black people could achieve freedom by developing their own solutions to the problems caused by apartheid.

Biko often spoke about the need to redefine “blackness” as a positive identity, fostering pride and unity among black South Africans. He also believed that social, political, and economic empowerment were essential for the liberation of black people, and that these goals could be achieved through community-based projects and initiatives.

Arrest, Death, and Legacy

The South African government saw Steve Biko and the Black Consciousness Movement as a significant threat to the apartheid regime. In 1973, Biko was banned from participating in political activities and confined to the Eastern Cape. Despite these restrictions, he continued to work clandestinely to advance the goals of the movement.

In August 1977, Biko was arrested, and on September 12, he died from a brain injury sustained while in police custody. His death sparked international outrage and galvanized the anti-apartheid movement, drawing global attention to the brutalities of the apartheid regime.

Today, Steve Biko is remembered as a martyr and a symbol of resistance against racial oppression. The Black Consciousness Movement played a crucial role in the fight against apartheid by empowering black South Africans to take control of their destiny. Biko’s ideas continue to inspire generations of activists worldwide, who strive for social justice and the eradication of racial inequality.

How Essays are Assessed in Grade 12

The essay will be assessed holistically (globally). This approach requires the teacher to score the overall product as a whole, without scoring the component parts separately. This approach encourages the learner to offer an individual opinion by using selected factual evidence to support an argument. The learner will not be required to simply regurgitate ‘facts’ in order to achieve a high mark. This approach discourages learners from preparing ‘model’ answers and reproducing them without taking into account the specific requirements of the question. Holistic marking of the essay credits learners’ opinions supported by evidence. Holistic assessment, unlike content-based marking, does not penalise language inadequacies as the emphasis is on the following:

The construction of an argument
The appropriate selection of factual evidence to support such an argument
The learner’s interpretation of the question.

Steve Biko: Black Consciousness Movement Grade 12 Essay s Topics

Topic: the challenge of black consciousness to the apartheid state.

Introduction

K ey Definitions

Civil protest : Opposition (usually against the current government’s policy) by ordinary citizens of a country
Uprising : Mass action against government policy
Bantu Homelands : Regions identified under the apartheid system as so-called homelands for different cultural and linguistic groups.
Prohibition : order by which something may not be done; prohibit; declared illegal
Resistance : When an individual or group of people work together against specific domination
Exile : When someone is banished from their country

(Background)

“South Africa as an apartheid state in 1970 to 1980
1978 PW Botha and launched his “Total Strategy”
There were limited powers granted to the Colored, Indians and black township councils to ensure economic and political white supremacy
Despite these reforms, Africans still did not gain any political rights outside their homelands
Government’s response to violence against government reform policies – the declaration of a state of emergency in 1985:
Banishment of the ANC and PAC to Sharpeville in 1960 – Underground Organizations
Leaders of the Liberation Movements were in prisons or in exile
New legislation – Terrorism Act – increases apartheid government’s power to suppress political opposition •Detention without trial – leads to the deaths of many activists
Torture of activists in custody
Increasing militarization within the country
Bantu education ensures a low-paid labour force •Apartheid regime had total control
In the late 1960s there was a new kind of resistance – The Black Consciousness Movement

( Nature and Objectives of Black Consciousness )

In the late 1970s, a new generation of black students began to organize resistance
Many were students at “forest college” established under the Bantu education system for black students such as the University of Zululand and the University of the North
They accepted the Black Consciousness philosophy
The term “black” was a direct dispute with the apartheid term “non-white”.
“Black people” were all who were oppressed by apartheid – including Indians and coloured people

Black Consciousness Movement Grade 12 Questions

Question 1: how did the ideas of the black consciousness movement challenge the apartheid regime in the 1970.

How to answer and get good marks?

Learners must use relevant evidence e.g. Uses relevant evidence that shows a thorough understanding of how the ideas of Black Consciousness challenged the apartheid regime in the 1970s .
Learners must also use evidence very effectively in an organised paragraph that shows an understanding of the topic

When you answer, you should not ignore the following key facts where applicable:

Black Consciousness wanted black South Africans to do things for themselves
Black Consciousness wanted black South Africans to act independently of other races x Self-reliance promoted self-pride among black South Africans

SASO references can also be applicable (if sources are presented)

SASO was formed to propagate the ideas of Black Consciousness
To safeguard and promote the interests of black South Africans students
SASO was based on the philosophy of Black Consciousness
SASO was associated with Steve Biko
SASO encouraged black South Africans students to be self-assertive

Question 2: How did the truth and reconciliation commision assist South Africa to come in terms with the past?

To ensure healing and reconciliation among victims and perpetrators of political violence through confession
The TRC encouraged the truth to be told
Hoped to bring about forgiveness through healing
To bring about ‘Reconciliation and National Unity’ among all South Africans
Any other relevant response.

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Black Consciousness Movement Grade 12 Essay

Black Consciousness Movement Grade 12 Essay:

Quick Facts to Consider Before Writing an Essay on Black Consciousness Movement:

Founded by Steve Biko : The Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) was founded by Steve Biko in the late 1960s to promote black pride and unity in South Africa.
Response to Apartheid : The BCM emerged as a response to the apartheid regime’s policies of racial segregation and the suppression of black political activism.
Philosophy of Self-Emancipation : Central to the BCM’s philosophy was the idea that black South Africans needed to emancipate themselves psychologically before seeking physical liberation from apartheid.
SASO : The movement started with the formation of the South African Students’ Organization (SASO) in 1968, focusing initially on black universities and colleges.
Black Community Programs : BCM activists initiated community programs aimed at improving education, health, and economic conditions in black communities.
Banned in 1977 : The South African government banned the BCM and related organizations in 1977, following the Soweto Uprising .
Soweto Uprising 1976 : The BCM played a significant role in inspiring the Soweto Uprising, where thousands of black students protested against the apartheid education system.
Death of Steve Biko : Steve Biko died in police custody in 1977, becoming a martyr for the anti-apartheid movement and bringing international attention to the cause.
Focus on Black Identity : The BCM promoted a strong sense of black identity, encouraging self-reliance and pride among black South Africans.
Opposition to White Liberalism : Biko and the BCM were critical of white liberalism, arguing that it perpetuated black dependency and hindered genuine liberation.
Influence on Music and Art : The movement influenced South African music and art, fostering a culture of resistance that expressed the struggles and aspirations of black South Africans.
Global Impact : The ideas and activism of the BCM influenced anti-racism movements worldwide, including the civil rights movement in the United States.
Revival of Black Activism : The BCM revitalized black political activism in South Africa during a period when other anti-apartheid organizations were banned and suppressed.
Continued Relevance : The principles and ideals of the BCM continue to influence South African society and politics in the post-apartheid era.
Legacy of Empowerment : The BCM left a lasting legacy of empowerment, teaching future generations the importance of self-awareness, identity, and unity in the struggle for justice and equality.

The Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) represents a pivotal chapter in South Africa’s history, particularly in the struggle against apartheid. Spearheaded by Steve Biko in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the BCM sought to empower black South Africans and dismantle the psychological chains of apartheid. This essay delves into the origins, key philosophies, and impacts of the BCM, shedding light on its enduring legacy in South Africa’s journey towards freedom and equality.

Origins of the Black Consciousness Movement

The BCM emerged in a period of intense political repression in South Africa. Following the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960 and the subsequent banning of major anti-apartheid organizations like the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) , the anti-apartheid struggle faced a significant vacuum. It was within this context that the BCM arose, initially as a movement focusing on the liberation of the black psyche from the shackles of racial inferiority imposed by apartheid ideology.

Key Philosophies of the BCM

Central to the BCM was the belief that before physical liberation, black South Africans needed to be liberated from the inferiority complex instilled by apartheid . Steve Biko, the most prominent figure of the BCM, advocated for a strong sense of black identity and self-reliance. According to Biko, “Black Consciousness is an attitude of the mind and a way of life , the most positive call to emanate from the black world for a long time.”

steve biko black consciousness movement grade 12 essay

The BCM emphasized the importance of black people defining their own identity and destiny, free from the perceptions and constraints imposed by a white-dominated society. It aimed to foster a sense of pride, self-worth, and unity among black South Africans, encouraging them to become their own liberators.

Impact and Legacy

The BCM had a profound impact on South Africa’s socio-political landscape. Its emphasis on black pride and unity inspired a new generation of activists and played a crucial role in revitalizing the anti-apartheid struggle during the 1970s. The movement’s influence was notably evident in the Soweto Uprising of 1976, where thousands of black students, motivated by the principles of the BCM, protested against the compulsory use of Afrikaans in schools. This event marked a significant turning point in the struggle against apartheid, highlighting the power and resilience of South Africa’s youth.

Tragically, the apartheid regime brutally suppressed the BCM, and in 1977, Steve Biko died in police custody, becoming a martyr for the cause. Despite this, the ideas of the BCM continued to inspire resistance against apartheid, both within South Africa and internationally.

The legacy of the BCM extends beyond the apartheid era. It contributed significantly to the development of black South African identity and has continued to influence post-apartheid South Africa in the realms of politics, culture, and education. The movement’s emphasis on pride, unity, and self-determination remains relevant as the country continues to navigate the challenges of inequality and national reconciliation.

The Black Consciousness Movement stands as a testament to the power of self-awareness and unity in the face of systemic oppression. By empowering black South Africans to reclaim their identity and dignity, the BCM played a crucial role in the broader struggle against apartheid. Its legacy, epitomized by the life and work of Steve Biko, continues to inspire future generations to strive for a society characterized by equality, justice, and mutual respect. As South Africa moves forward, the principles of the BCM serve as a reminder of the importance of consciousness, identity, and the indomitable spirit of resistance in the pursuit of true liberation.

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Steve biko and the black consciousness movement.

Leslie Anne Hadfield Leslie Anne Hadfield Department of History, Brigham Young University
https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.83
Published online: 27 February 2017

The Black Consciousness movement of South Africa instigated a social, cultural, and political awakening in the country in the 1970s. By the mid-1960s, major anti-apartheid organizations in South Africa such as the African National Congress and Pan-Africanist Congress had been virtually silenced by government repression. In 1969, Steve Biko and other black students frustrated with white leadership in multi-racial student organizations formed an exclusively black association. Out of the South African Students’ Organization (SASO) came what was termed Black Consciousness. This philosophy redefined “black” as an inclusive, positive identity and taught that black South Africans could make meaningful change in their society if “conscientized” or awakened to their self-worth and the need for activism. The movement emboldened youth, contributed to the development of Black Theology and cultural movements, and led to the formation of new community and political organizations such as the Black Community Programs organization and the Black People’s Convention.

Articulate and charismatic, Steve Biko was one of the movement’s foremost instigators and prolific writers. When the South African government understood the threat Black Consciousness posed to apartheid, it worked to silence the movement and its leaders. Biko was banished to his home district in the Eastern Cape, where he continued to build community development programs and have a strong political influence. His death at the hands of security police in September 1977 revealed the brutality of South African security forces and the extent to which the state would go to maintain white supremacy. After Biko’s death, the state declared Black Consciousness–related organizations illegal. Activists formed the Azanian People’s Organization (AZAPO) in 1978 to carry on Black Consciousness ideals, though the movement in general waned after Biko’s death. Since then, Biko has loomed over the history of the Black Consciousness movement as a powerful icon and celebrated hero while others have looked to Black Consciousness in forging a new black future for South Africa.

Black Consciousness
South African Student’s Organization
liberation movements

The Rise of Black Consciousness

The Black Consciousness movement became one of the most influential anti-apartheid movements of the 1970s in South Africa. While many parts of the African continent gained independence, the apartheid state increased its repression of black liberation movements in the 1960s. In the latter part of the decade, the major anti-apartheid organizations worked underground or in exile. The state also increased its extra-legal tactics of intimidation, silencing some activists by kidnapping or killing them. This state action crippled anti-apartheid activity and instilled a sense of fear in the larger black community. The state also began creating so-called homelands—small reserves intended to become independent countries for specific ethnic groups to curb black political opposition and urbanization while retaining access to black labor. All of this perpetuated deep-seated cultural racism in South Africa.

As state repression increased, universities and churches tended to have greater freedom to speak out against the government and facilitated the sharing of ideas. The 1960s saw an increase in Christian social movements and growing opposition to apartheid in churches and ecumenical organizations. Both economic prosperity and greater government control led to higher numbers of black students in primary and secondary schools and the expansion of black universities, segregated according to ethnicity. Although apartheid education restricted black aspirations, these schools also became places of politicization where black students could come together and share ideas and experiences. These elements along with the daily experiences and interpretations of individuals who made up the Black Consciousness movement all contributed to its growth. As emerging young adults unencumbered by the fear of older generations, these activists looked for a way to fundamentally change their society. They did this first by targeting the mind of black people in South Africa. But the movement was also about immediate and relevant action that would make South Africans self-reliant. In other words, it sought a full liberation of black South Africans by starting at the level of the individual, an approach not overtly political to begin with.

SASO and Black Consciousness

The beginning of the movement is marked by the formation of the South African Students’ Organization (SASO), officially launched in July 1969 . Black students at various universities, especially at the University of Natal Medical School–Black Section (UNB), the University of Fort Hare, and the University of the North at Turfloop, became increasingly frustrated with the limits of white student leadership in multiracial organizations. At a National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) meeting held in Grahamstown in 1967 and a University Christian Movement (UCM) conference in Stutterheim in July 1968 , the mostly white leadership would not act decisively to challenge the enforced racial segregation of accommodations for the students at the conference. Led primarily by Steve Biko and Barney Pityana, black students decided to form an exclusively black organization to more effectively advance the cause of the oppressed in South Africa.

SASO laid the foundation for what would grow beyond universities and student groups to become a wider movement. It was in SASO that activists formulated the Black Consciousness philosophy. SASO students also started engaging in community development programs and artistic and literary production and eventually moved into political defiance against the state.

Members of SASO as university students had access to a number of different ideas and engaged with each other—students who came to universities with diverse backgrounds, but similar experiences. They also had access to news media and reading materials through student-activist networks. As they debated and read materials from various parts of Africa and the African diaspora, these students formulated what they began to call Black Consciousness. In addition to the influences of various South African perspectives and their experience in student politics, a number of philosophers and leaders from the African continent and the African diaspora helped shape their thinking. Daniel Magaziner described them as “autonomous shoppers in the marketplace of ideas.” 1 SASO students studied Franz Fanon’s analysis of the psychological impact of colonialism, Jean-Paul Sartre’s dialectical analysis, Zambia’s K. K. Kaunda’s African humanism, and Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere’s version of African socialism that emphasized self-reliance and development for liberation. They also read from black American authors, particularly identifying with the Black Power movement (even adopting the raised fist as a gesture of black pride in South Africa) and analyzing the Black Theology of James Cone. SASO students also drew upon the writings of Brazil’s educationalist, Paulo Freire, from which they derived the idea of “to conscientize”—to awaken people to a critical awareness of their situation and their ability to change their situation.

Black Consciousness began to be defined as “an attitude of mind” or “way of life” of black people who believed in their potential and value as black people and saw the need for black people to work together for a holistic liberation. SASO students explained South Africa’s main problem as twofold: white racism and black acquiescence to that racism. They felt that in general, black people had accepted their own inferiority in society. Without a positive, creative sense of self, black people would not challenge the status quo. “The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor [was] the mind of the oppressed,” Biko argued. 2 Thus, Black Consciousness activists worked to change the black mindset, to look inward to build black capacity to realize their own liberation. Biko wrote that colonialism, missionaries, and apartheid had made the black man “a shell, a shadow of man, completely defeated, drowning in his own misery, a slave, an ox bearing the yoke of oppression with sheepish timidity.” He continued:

This is the first truth, bitter as it may seem, that we have to acknowledge before we can start on any programme [ sic ] designed to change the status quo…. The first step therefore is to make the black man come to himself; to pump back life into his empty shell; to infuse him with pride and dignity, to remind him of his complicity in the crime of allowing himself to be misused and therefore letting evil reign supreme in the country of his birth. 3

In affecting a black psychological, social, economic, and even spiritual liberation, activists saw two aspects as vitally important. First, they defined black as a new positive definition that included all people of color discriminated against by the color of their skin. This was a new approach to grouping people divided into apartheid into Coloureds (mixed-race people), Indians, and various black African ethnic groups. They wanted to make South Africa African in the end (though they had a vaguely defined future) but used a political definition of black that referred to a shared experience and outlook that was more cosmopolitan in celebrating black values and culture. A positive black identity would increase black people’s faith in their own potential. Black unity also presented a stronger front against apartheid. SASO came to strongly reject the participation of black South Africans in any apartheid institution that emphasized ethnic separation (including the so-called African homelands). Second, Black Consciousness activists rejected white liberals (whom they defined as any white person seeking to oppose apartheid). They saw white leadership as an obstacle to black liberation because it stifled black leadership and psychological development. As black people understood fully the oppression they experienced firsthand, activists believed they had the insights and knowledge to know what needed to change. White leadership would hinder the development of a truly self-reliant, black society. The phrase “Black man you are on your own” became a slogan of the movement. For many people, including white liberals, this came across as abrasive and startling. Some even accused SASO of promoting reverse racism. For others, it led to a refreshing, emboldened new consciousness.

SASO began with a few black students who worked to recruit other students across black campuses. This was not always easy, but strongholds developed at the University of the North, Zululand, Fort Hare, the Western Cape, and in Durban. SASO students in these various universities traveled around trying to prompt a psychological change among blacks in a number of ways. From the beginning of SASO, students engaged in community work. This began as a way to relieve the suffering of black people in poverty. Yet community projects were also seen as a way to uplift black communities psychologically as well as to improve black self-reliance. Each campus group ran projects in neighboring communities, such as volunteering in local clinics, helping to secure a clean water supply, and running education and literacy programs. The students learned from their experiences and drew upon the methodologies of Freire in particular to help them refine this work.

SASO also spread Black Consciousness through the SASO Newsletter , wherein activists described their philosophy, shared news, and dealt with the nature of their oppression. Asserting the right to speak was important for these activists and they claimed this right in the newsletter, along with other literary forms such as poems and plays. The newsletter also reported on various student meetings where students developed their thinking, debated strategies for the future, and discussed how to engage with the broader community. So-called formation schools—weekend or holiday camps—served as training grounds where students debated societal issues and learned organizational strategies. Acutely aware of the politically hostile environment within which it worked, SASO made it a point to train a number of layers of leadership to ensure the organization would continue if state repression were to hit.

A marker of the “attitude” and “way of life” of Black Consciousness activists was the way they carried themselves. The clothes they wore, their demeanor when interacting with white people, and the music they listened to all portrayed confidence and pride in blackness. The young women involved in the Black Consciousness especially challenged the status quo with new styles by throwing away their skin-lightening creams and wigs and wearing their hair in natural Afros. They also wore bold styles in clothing that pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable at the time, such as very tight pants. Some even smoked cigarettes in public. Though female students were involved in the movement from the beginning—prominent SASO women include Vuyelwa Mashalaba, Deborah Matshoba, Daphne Matshoba, Lindelwe Mabandla, Mamphela Ramphele, Thenjiwe Mthintso—the movement was dominated by male students. Women’s issues were tabled in favor of focusing on black liberation. Female activists had to excel at male ways of debating to gain an influence in SASO. The students also held parties where young women were treated more as objects of sexual desire. For some, this means that women had more conservative roles in the movement; however, some women did gain leadership in the movement, especially in community projects where they challenged conventional gender roles.

The Broader Movement

Before the state took action to suppress Black Consciousness, its influence had expanded beyond university campuses. With the spread of ideas and expansion of organizations linked to Black Consciousness, what began as a student organization grew into a movement with a broad, diffused impact that can be difficult to generalize about or trace precisely.

Cultural Movement

The movement had cultural dimensions, linked in varying degrees to formal organizations. Black Consciousness ideas resonated with poets and theater groups in particular. Some worked directly with SASO. For example, a group of black students and actors from Durban, many of Indian descent, performed their plays at SASO events (these activists formed the Theatre Council of Natal or TECON as well as the South African Black Theatre Union or SABTU). Their plays, such as Black on White and Resurrection , examined what it meant to be black and oppressed in South Africa. Participants and playwrights such as Asha Rambally Moodley and Strinivasa Moodley joined Black Consciousness organizations, while others simply continued to use theater as a way to raise a critical awareness among black communities. Poets such as Oswald Mtshali, Mongane Wally Serote, Don Mattera, Mafika Pascal Gwala, and James Matthews, among others, similarly dealt with black oppression and sought to inspire hope in black self-determination with positive images and themes of resistance and redemption. Black Consciousness promoted music with black themes and origins and influenced the outlook and material in Sowetan literary magazines, such as The Classic , New Classic , and Staffrider . 4 As Mbulelo Mzamane has argued, Black Consciousness effectively used culture as a form of affecting a black awakening and resisting white supremacy in an oppressive political climate. 5

Black Theology

Black Consciousness also contributed to the development of Black Theology in South Africa. Ecumenical organizations, Christian activists, and Black Consciousness adherents all influenced each other. The University Christian Movement (UCM) established a project spearheaded by Sabelo Stanley Ntwasa on Black Theology coming from the United States—an interpretation of Christianity that taught that Christ came to liberate the poor and oppressed, the black populations in the United States and South Africa. SASO joined the UCM in engaging Black Theology in the South African context and resolved to influence a change in leadership in South African churches. SASO and other Black Consciousness organizations supported conferences focused on examining Christianity’s relevancy to black South Africans. 6 A number of those influenced by Black Theology later became leaders of Christian resistance and contextual theology, such as Alphaeus Zulu, Manas Buthelezi, Desmond Tutu, Allan Boesak, and Frank Chikane. Activists worked closely with radical priests and ecumenical organizations, significantly putting these Christian ideals into action. 7

Black Community Programs

In September of 1971 , the Christian Institute and the South African Council of Churches appointed Bennie Khoapa as the director of a division of their Special Project on Christian Action in Society (Spro-cas 2). As the head of the Black Community Programs (BCP), Khoapa combined Christian action with the Black Consciousness philosophy. The organization sought to coordinate among other agencies run by and in the black community and to conscientize black South Africans through publication projects that provided relevant news for black people and promoted a positive black identity. The BCP eventually moved to run its own projects when activists working for the organization found themselves restricted to their home areas by banning orders in 1973 . For example, it ran health clinics such as the Zanempilo Community Health Center in the Eastern Cape, managed cottage industries like the Njwaxa leatherwork factory also in the Eastern Cape, and opened resource centers at its regional offices. It published a yearbook, Black Review . The BCP gave practical expression to Black Consciousness ideals. BCP publications encouraged black publishing in South Africa and became a trusted source of positive information in black communities. Research in villages where the BCP ran its projects has demonstrated that health and economic projects in the Eastern Cape improved black people’s physical conditions and helped villagers gain a greater sense of human dignity. Through this work, the BCP also significantly addressed women’s issues and female activists proved themselves as capable leaders and respected colleagues. 8

The Black People’s Convention

At the same time that some activists saw community and cultural work as essential for reaching their goals, others advocated for a national organization to push for more immediate political change. This led to the formation of the Black People’s Convention (BPC). In 1971 at meetings of various black agencies to discuss the formation of a national coordinating organization (including the Interdenominational African Ministers’ Association and the Association for the Educational and Cultural Advancement of the African People), proponents of establishing an overtly political organization (such as Aubrey Mokoape and Harry Nengwekhulu) gained a majority over those who saw community development as a more sure way of building up strength for future political work. The BPC was launched in July 1972 and held its first national conference in December, where Winifred Kgware was elected as one its first president. The principal aim of the BPC was defined as fostering black political unity in the Black Consciousness sense in order to achieve psychological and physical liberation. This included creating an egalitarian society, developing Black Theology, and condemning foreign countries working with the apartheid government, among other objectives. The BPC was the first black national political organization formed since 1960 and took a strong stance of non-participation in the apartheid system. Membership did not grow as rapidly or as widely as the BPC hoped. By the end of 1973 , the BPC had forty-one branches. Still, the BPC helped organize the pro-FRELIMO rallies and continued to refine its future vision for South Africa, including the much debated Mafeking Manifesto that outlined a specific mixed-economy future for South Africa. 9

Youth and Leadership

Activists also influenced high school students and the development of youth movements, directly and indirectly. SASO and the BCP held youth leadership conferences or formation schools that engaged students in critical social analysis and taught organizational skills. These meetings eventually led to the formation of regional youth organizations and the National Youth Organization (NYO, formed in 1973 ). In Soweto, where student organizations had already been operating, SASO students and events in general helped spread Black Consciousness among high school students. SASO leader Onkgopotse Abraham Tiro, expelled from the University of the North, and other SASO students ended up teaching in high schools in Soweto. The already existing African Student Movement changed its name to the South African Student Movement (SASM), to be more inclusive. It was SASM that organized the June 16, 1976 , Soweto student march against the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction that led to widespread uprisings. Although the Black Consciousness movement cannot claim credit for orchestrating the Soweto Uprisings, the movement’s bold assertion of black self-worth and self-reliance clearly influenced high school students, and SASM aligned itself to Black Consciousness organizations. The student uprisings of 1976 , along with other adult leaders who became involved in running community programs in Soweto (such as Ramsey Ramokgopa and Oshadi Mangena), are evidence of the way Black Consciousness ideas changed South African thinking among different groups of people in various corners of the country. 10

Clashes with the State

State repression profoundly shaped the context and direction of the Black Consciousness movement. Aware of the way the state cracked down on resistance in the early 1960s, SASO leaders deliberately avoided confrontation with the state in order to evade crippling state action. Still, activists took care to nurture leadership so that replacements were ready to fill in positions if the police detained people in leadership roles. Initially, the state saw the formation of an exclusively black student organization as fitting with apartheid. However, it soon understood that Black Consciousness undermined the whole philosophy behind apartheid and increasingly bore down on the movement and its leaders. The state’s efforts to silence activists included bans on individuals (legal orders that restricted a person’s movement, political involvement, and public presence), numerous detentions without trial (for up to 180 days at times), and constant police surveillance and intimidation. Activists learned to outwit the police. Their youthful energy and audacity sustained their activity in this politically hostile environment. They also found hope in suffering at the hands of the state because they viewed it as a sacrifice that advanced South Africa closer to liberation. 11

Confrontation with the state escalated first in 1972 , when Tiro, the Student Representative Council president at the University of the North, gave a speech criticizing the university’s white leadership and the racial discrimination infused in its education. The university expelled Tiro. This sparked a number of black student strikes across the country. Many of these students were in turn expelled and at the beginning of 1973 ; the state placed banning orders on a number of SASO leaders including Biko, Pityana, Nengwekhulu, Saths Cooper, Strini Moodley, and Bokwe Mafuna. This scattered activists throughout the country, although they found ways to continue their work.

State repression of Black Consciousness activists intensified in the next few years, especially as activists took more overt action against the state. A particularly important move in this direction was the pro-FRELIMO rallies held at the University of the North and in Durban in September 1974 to celebrate the liberation of a neighboring country from European colonialism and express their support for the people of Mozambique. The minister of justice declared the rallies illegal just before they were to take place. The leaders of SASO and the BPC decided to go through with their original plans, even if it meant violent clashes with police. Police did indeed break up the rallies using some violence. This led to further arrests and detentions of activists and a publicized court case that essentially put Black Consciousness on trial ( State v. Cooper et al., also known as the SASO-BPC trial). Nine men were tried and convicted of encouraging racial hostility. 12 Even if not all Black Consciousness activists agreed with the way the rallies were held, this move marked them more firmly as enemies of the state and gave the movement a more public place in anti-apartheid politics.

Police harassment, detentions, and bannings spiked again after the 1976 student uprisings and continued into 1977 . This took a toll on the lives of many activists. Detentions put a psychological strain on individuals and their families, and increasingly brutal torture inflicted physical damage. Four Black Consciousness activists died between 1972 and 1977 as a result of the actions of South African security forces: Mthuli ka Shezi was pushed onto a train track in 1972 , Tiro was letter-bombed in Botswana in 1974 , Mapetla Mohapi (SASO organizer) was killed in the Kei Road police station in 1976 , and Biko died at the hands of the security police in 1977 .

Bantu Stephen Biko, the most prominent figure of the Black Consciousness movement, was not the only student, thinker, writer, and community project director in the movement, but he did play a significant role in forming SASO, spreading the Black Consciousness philosophy, and running and advising the BPC, among other informal roles. His charismatic personality drew people to him. His death at the hands of the South African security police thus had significant repercussions for the Black Consciousness movement and made him a famous martyr.

Born at Tarkastad on December 18, 1946 , to Mzingaye and Alice Duna Biko, Biko grew up in Ginsberg (a small township of King William’s Town in the Eastern Cape). Biko’s father was a policeman (studying for a law degree by correspondence) until he died of an illness in 1950 . Biko’s mother subsequently supported her four children—Bukelwa, Khaya, Bantu, and Nobandile—by working as a domestic maid, then a cook at Grey Hospital in King William’s Town. Biko’s mother was a committed Christian and was often remembered for the way she helped people in need in the township or people in transit at the train station nearby. This kind of community involvement and devotion influenced each of her children in their chosen professions later in life.

The Ginsberg community was a small but racially and economically diverse and vibrant community in the 1950s and 1960s. Biko lived with Coloured neighbors, and Ginsberg’s Weir Hall hosted a number of musical events. There were also a number of sports clubs. Although the community had politically involved people, Biko himself was not interested in politics as a young boy. His siblings, friends, and classmates remember him as being a highly capable student but one who was very playful and sociable. His academic achievements won him support from his community, which organized a bursary for him to join his older brother at the Lovedale Institution to finish high school when he was sixteen years old. His brother’s political activities with the Pan Africanist Congress led to his detention and then expulsion from Lovedale in 1963 . This experience politicized Biko. He resented the abuse of authority by the police, especially as he thought about his brother’s experience. His schooling had also been interrupted, leaving him at home to think while his peers busied themselves with school work. In 1964 , he continued his schooling at St. Francis College, a Roman Catholic school in Mariannhill in the then Natal province. There he further distinguished himself as an outstanding student and questioned authorities and their Christian beliefs. He also held stimulating intellectual debates about African independence with other students.

Biko’s scholastic achievements won him a spot at the UNB medical school, the only place where black people could study medicine during apartheid. There Steve interacted with black people of various backgrounds and began to play a role in student politics at the university. He joined NUSAS and also interacted with the UCM. It is through these student networks that he began working with other students such as Pityana to start SASO. He traveled around the country with Pityana and others to persuade students at black colleges and universities to join SASO and to explain the Black Consciousness philosophy. He served as SASO’s first president. His room at the medical school residency served as the SASO office. After one year in office, SASO elected Pityana as president and Biko took the role of publications officer. Using the pseudonym Frank Talk, he instituted a series in SASO’s newsletter entitled, “I Write What I Like,” where he tackled a number of issues and explained Black Consciousness. Former friends and activists remember Biko as one who enabled others, rather than seeking leadership roles. He also continued to find joy in his associations with people—of all racial backgrounds—mixing intellectual and political conversations with his socializing. He was known for his demanding work ethic as well as his ability to hold his drink.

During his time in Durban he met and married a nursing student, Nontsikelelo (Ntsiki) Mashalaba, with whom he had two sons, Nkosinathi (b. 1971 ) and Samora (b. 1975 ). Biko loved his family and spending time with his children; however, he did not put boundaries on his romantic and sexual relationships with women. It was also during his time in Durban that Biko met and worked with Ramphele, with whom he had a long-standing affair. He and Ramphele had a daughter, Lerato (who lived for two months in 1974 ), and a son, Hlumelo (b. 1978 ). Biko had affairs with a number of other women as well. One, Lorrain Tabane, gave birth to Biko’s daughter Motlatsi (b. 1977 ). Although their student days were marked by parties with women and drinking, a number of Biko’s friends later confronted him about his womanizing, as did his wife and Ramphele. Yet Biko seems to have been unwilling or unable to resolve the controversies and pain he caused through this behavior before his death. While he worked well with many women as colleagues and fellow activists, he at times struggled to concede that traditional gender roles could change. 13

In 1972 , Biko was expelled from medical school and left to find a way to support his young son and wife (who was also fired because of her husband’s political involvement). This led to his employment by Khoapa as a field officer for the BCP, his only official employment ever. In Durban, he worked on coordinating among various black organizations and on producing the Black Review . In 1973 , his banning sent him back to Ginsberg. This changed his work and the direction of the BCP. He set up an Eastern Cape branch of the BCP in King William’s Town, from where he helped establish the Zanempilo clinic, took over the Njwaxa project, ran the BCP office and resource center, continued to assist with publications, and started other bursary and grocery coop programs in Ginsberg. He also continued to be involved politically, despite constant police surveillance and attempts to arrest and detain him, and started studying for a law degree by correspondence. Even when he was further restricted by the government from working officially for the BCP in 1975 , he continued to advise on the projects and political matters. The BPC even elected him as an honorary president in 1977 to give him authority to cultivate unity among the various black political groups in the country at the time. Working against the apartheid security forces was a challenge, especially when Biko felt isolated and watched his fellow activists and friends suffer. But Biko also found ways to circumvent police surveillance and to challenge their authority. He was detained, arrested, and accused several times (though never convicted). He was also called to testify at the SASO-BPC trial, which gave him a public platform to define Black Consciousness and display his debating skills. He also famously befriended Donald Woods, the white East London Daily Dispatch newspaper editor, which gave the movement inroads into the media and other networks.

Biko continued to work on unifying the various black groups even under his banning orders. The last trip he took outside of his restricted banning area led him to Cape Town with fellow activist Peter Jones on August 17, 1977 , to meet with various people including Black Consciousness activists as well as Neville Alexander of the Unity Movement. The meetings never materialized. Fearing negative repercussions if they stayed too long, Jones and Biko turned back the next day. They were stopped at a roadblock just outside of Grahamstown. A problem with opening the trunk of the car they had borrowed made the police suspicious. When the police found out they had detained two leaders of the Black Consciousness movement, they arrested the two and sent them to security police headquarters in Port Elizabeth. Biko and Jones suffered physical torture at the hands of the security police.

On September 6, the police took their physical beatings of Biko too far. Police testimonies indicate that Biko’s refusal to submit to disrespectful treatment led the police to beat him and run him into the wall. Biko collapsed. Instead of providing medical treatment, the police chained him to a gate in a standing position. They only called in a district surgeon the next day. Despite evidence of brain damage, the police kept Biko naked and chained up in his cell until his conditioned worsened. On September, the police loaded Biko naked into the back of a police van and drove him through the night to Pretoria Central Prison for medical care. He was pronounced dead there on September 12, 1977 .

The announcement of Biko’s death sparked an international outcry. At first the government said Biko had died of a hunger strike. However, evidence from a postmortem examination proved that Biko had died of head injuries. An inquest into the death of Biko was held, but no one was convicted. Later evidence showed that the police and the medical professionals involved lied at the inquest about the timing of the care Biko received and the cause of the nature of the physical scuffle that led to Biko’s death. When the case was brought to the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the hearings shed further light on the physical struggle that led to Biko’s death and the medical doctors’ complicity but left members of the Biko family dissatisfied with the police officers’ disclosure. The TRC denied amnesty to all of the police officers involved in the hearings. Biko’s death remains a poignant example of the brutality and dishonesty of government security forces as well as the medical sector during apartheid.

Thousands of people attended Biko’s funeral in King William’s Town. A few weeks later, the government banned all Black Consciousness–related organizations including SASO, the BCP, the BPC, and other sympathetic organizations, newspapers, and individuals. Because of Biko’s role in the Black Consciousness movement and the nature of his death, he became the movement’s main martyr. This has influenced the way in which he has been celebrated and remembered. Biko is often placed at the center of histories of the Black Consciousness movement. He was one of the first liberation movement heroes to be memorialized in the post-apartheid era with a statue, his gravesite, and his home being dedicated in 1997 , the 20th anniversary of his death. Soon afterwards, his widow and oldest son, Nkosinathi, formed the Steve Biko Foundation, which contributes to the celebration and shaping of Biko’s character. Yet many have claimed Biko as a progenitor or hero. Community members, people involved in the projects he ran, his friends and colleagues, political parties, and public intellectuals look to Biko. Almost all remember his good characteristics (although his peers are more willing to recognize his faults). He is particularly seen as someone who sacrificed for the nation when in the post-apartheid period leaders from liberation movements are charged with corruption and self-serving politics. He has also been elevated as a leading intellectual and political activist, someone who spoke out boldly and affirmed black dignity. For some, he stands as a revolutionary, while others see him as entrenched in community work.

Post-1977 Black Consciousness Directions

The apartheid state dealt a heavy blow to the Black Consciousness movement after Biko’s death when it declared all Black Consciousness–related organizations illegal. However, activists regrouped in various ways to continue their work. As Mbulelo Mzamane, Bavusile Maaba, and Nkosinathi Biko wrote, different views about the end goal of Black Consciousness manifested themselves in the directions activists took after 1977 . 14 Some continued with community development projects as a practical way of advancing the material position of black people while also improving black self-perceptions. For example, Malusi and Thoko Mpumlwana started the Zingisa Education Fund in the place of the Ginsberg Education Fund and later established the Trust for Christian Outreach and Education (an umbrella for other community development organizations). Ramphele established the Ithuseng Community Health Centre in Tzaneen, where she had been banned, based on the Zanempilo Community Health Centre model.

On the other hand, disagreements already stirring in the movement surfaced about what kind of action would move South Africa closer to freedom and the validity of an analysis that saw economic class as the main cause of inequality. Those advocating a more direct confrontation with the state had already begun to join armed organizations outside the country. Other activists still in the country saw an above-ground political organization as the best way to embody Black Consciousness and affect change. In 1978 , a group of activists met in Roodepoort to form the Azanian People’s Organisation (AZAPO), designed to defy state repression and carry on the work of the BPC. While AZAPO sought to address various aspects of the black experience, it soon adhered to a more socialist interpretation and approach, even emphasizing workers’ concerns. Black Consciousness leadership in Ginsberg had previously highlighted the importance of changing unequal economic structures that disadvantaged the black majority and activists had begun exploring the idea of “black communalism,” but AZAPO now adopted a more explicit class analysis, which it called “scientific socialism.” Activists in AZAPO saw Black Consciousness’s focus on black self-reliance as making it a distinctively different organization, in opposition to other socialist-leaning organizations like the ANC and its supporters. This resulted at times in physically violent clashes. (The PAC and AZAPO have also clashed at times. 15 ) Activists in exile formed the Black Consciousness Movement of Azania (BCMA) as a sort of wing to AZAPO that operated in the 1980s.

Other activists took their conscientized outlook with them as they joined various existing organizations such as the ANC and the PAC. For them, Black Consciousness was an “attitude of mind” and “way of life” that black people needed to adopt, no matter what political organization they belonged to. Some activists in exile, for instance, who had been part of the BCMA eventually decided an additional organization was unnecessary and joined other organizations.

Different interpretations of Black Consciousness and various activists have persisted as people ask what it means to be free in a post-apartheid South Africa. AZAPO is still a political party, although a minor one (and it too has had breakaway factions). Others have written in the same style as Frank Talk. Some have interpreted Black Consciousness simply as promoting black economic and political ascendency or a celebration of black culture (which has translated into clothing lines, for instance). Others look to Black Consciousness for answers about how to uproot residual colonialism. In the early 2000s, younger generations of South Africans, transcending political party boundaries, looked to Black Consciousness as a radical challenge to prevailing racial structures. For example, university student movements in 2015 and 2016 evoked Black Consciousness when critiquing university curriculum and claiming a voice as youth. Some of these students saw a lack of black pride and economic inequality in South Africa as evidence of continued black oppression. Thus, black South Africans continue to evoke Black Consciousness.

Discussion of the Literature

Many scholars and writers have been inspired by Steve Biko and the Black Consciousness movement. This has resulted in a relatively large body of scholarship with authors primarily from South Africa and the United States taking perspectives ranging from the biographical and commemorative, political science, philosophy, history, and literary and visual arts. The amount of scholarship along with various news articles, commentaries, and short-run periodicals demonstrates the power of Biko as an icon and shows that people find relevancy in the movement’s ideas and history. Yet, many works reiterate common themes with an emphasis on Biko’s intellectual and political work.

The first authors who wrote about the Black Consciousness movement in the 1970s and 1980s included sympathetic political scientists and those seeking to commemorate Biko. A collection of Biko’s own writings was published along with a memoir by Biko’s friend, Father Aelred Stubbs, in 1978 , soon after Biko’s death. Various editions of this collection, entitled I Write What I Like , have appeared many times since. Three other books published at the same time similarly sought to publicize Biko’s ideas and expose the brutality of the apartheid regime, including Donald Woods’s Biko . 16 In a more scholarly vein, political scientists Gail Gerhart, Robert Fatton Jr., and CRD Halisi situated Black Consciousness in relation to other black political ideologies to discuss its ideas on race and citizenship. 17

The 1990s saw further commemoration of Biko, but a greater analysis of the Black Consciousness movement. Bounds of Possibility , a volume edited by Biko’s former colleagues and activists, included a brief biography of Biko and commemorative essays as well as various examinations of different aspects of the movement. Even though it perpetuated the focus on Biko, it broadened the analysis of the movement to touch on theology, cultural production, community engagement, and gender. Saleem Badat and Thomas Karis and Gerhart’s work in the late 1990s presaged greater historical analysis and summary of the movement found in subsequent works. 18 For example, in 2006 , Mbulelo Mzamane, Bavusile Maaba, and Nkosinathi Biko’s chapter in The Road to Democracy in South Africa , vol. 2, gave the most comprehensive summary of the movement to that date, and Bhekizizwe Peterson’s chapter in the same volume focused on Black Consciousness literary and other cultural work. 19 Former activists, friends, and politicians continued to add their personal reflections in monographs and edited collections, particularly at anniversaries of Biko’s death. 20 Biographies and edited collections in the early 2000s dealt with Black Consciousness’s philosophical, intellectual, and cultural production. This came as people questioned what it meant to be black and liberated in a post-apartheid, globalized world. For example, Andile Mngxitama, Amanda Alexander, and Nigel Gibson’s Biko Lives! began with a substantial section entitled “Philosophical Dialogues,” and Nigel Gibson and Lewis R Gordon have focused on Black Consciousness’s relation to Fanon and existential thought, respectively. 21

More historical analyses were published as the 1970s became more distant. These works explored the origins, contexts, and impact of the 1970s movement. Daniel R. Magaziner published the first historical monograph of Black Consciousness. His The Law and the Prophets examined the movement’s intellectual history in the context of its time. Leslie Anne Hadfield provided an in-depth analysis of the movement’s extensive community development work in Liberation and Development . 22 Other scholars have emphasized Biko’s longer intellectual heritage, manifested in the museum exhibit at the Steve Biko Centre in Ginsberg, and in Xolela Mangcu’s biography of Biko. 23 These, along with other works published at the same time, notably dealt with questions about the place of women and youth in the movement. 24

Scholars of other disciplines such as art history and theology have continued to explore various parts of the movement and Biko’s impact in depth. 25 Updated collections of Biko’s writings continue to be published. Repeated references to Black Consciousness in South African politics and the growth in scholarly work about the movement indicates that new questions will draw out different aspects of the history of Black Consciousness and Biko in the future. 26 However, many works continue to commemorate Biko and the intellectual aspects of the movement at the expense of greater coverage, complexity, and historical sensitivity. This also has the effect of confining analyses to the Black Consciousness movement of the 1970s, with Biko’s death in 1977 seen as the close of that era. More work on the various actors and broader reach of the movement, including a focus on different regional experiences and contemporary adaptations of Black Consciousness, could prove to be enlightening and productive avenues for further research.

Primary Sources

In relation to the beginnings of Black Consciousness with SASO, there is a relative abundance of published primary sources and sources accessible online. These include Biko’s writings, literary and organizational publications, memoirs and interviews published in edited volumes. On the other hand, many written records from the time when state repression and police harassment increased have been lost or destroyed. Furthermore, after 1977 , the movement was more diffused, resulting in a less cohesive archive for this time period. The written record thus poses challenges for reconstructing the history of the Black Consciousness movement and Biko. Historians have turned to various different sources to create a fuller picture of the movement. Most notably, they have conducted numerous oral histories to fill in the gaps of the written record.

Public Archives

In addition to published primary sources, there are two main archival repositories in South Africa that hold substantial collections on Biko and the Black Consciousness movement, both written and oral sources. The Steve Biko Foundation has created an archive, now housed at the Steve Biko Centre in Ginsberg. This collection brings together sources from major public and personal archives concerning Biko, Black Consciousness, Black community programs of the 1970s, and many of Biko’s contemporaries. It includes copies of the South African Department of Justice files related to Steve Biko and Black Consciousness activists, copies from papers at the University of the Witwatersrand, the Bruce Haigh Special Collection, documents pertaining to the TRC Amnesty Application by the killers of Steve Biko, cuttings from the Daily Dispatch 1972 to 2003 , master’s and doctoral theses, and the collections of scholars such as Magaziner and Hadfield (including the transcripts of the oral histories they conducted).

The Historical Papers division of the William Cullen Library at the University of Witwatersrand has an extensive collection of material related to human and civil rights in South Africa. It has accessions with materials on: Steve Biko; SASO; AZAPO and the Azanian Student’s Organization; the Black People’s Convention; the SASO-BPC trial; and the research materials of Thomas Karis and Gail M. Gerhart used to write From Protest to Challenge (also available on microfilm at the Center for Research Libraries in Chicago). It also holds several valuable accessions on related organizations, such as the papers of the Christian Institute and the South African Council of Churches and their joint program, Spro-cas, the parent organization of the BCP and the papers of the University Christian Movement, and NUSAS. Some of these materials have been digitized and can be accessed online through the archive’s website.

Two other archives hold important materials. The Unisa Documentation Centre for African Studies at the University of South Africa main library in Pretoria has organizational brochures and documents related to the BCP, BPC, and SASO that are not found elsewhere, along with other miscellaneous Black Consciousness papers. For research on AZAPO and the BCMA, the National Heritage and Cultural Studies Centre (NAHECS) at the University of Fort Hare has the most extensive collection in their accession on the Azanian People’s Organization/Black Consciousness Movement (AZAPO/BCM).

Digital and Filmed Collections

Primary sources may also be found in online collections: Digital Innovation South Africa (DISA) digital library has copies of Black Consciousness publications such as the SASO Newsletter and Black Review ; the Aluka digital library’s Struggles for Freedom in Southern Africa Collection includes a sampling of interviews and documents from Gerhart Interviews, Karis-Gerhart Collection, Magaziner Interviews, and NUSAS (but Aluka requires a subscription to access those materials); the Google Arts and Culture online exhibits includes a series on Biko with photographs and some documents. The South African History Online website includes a number of pages on Steve Biko, the Black Consciousness Movement, SASO, the BPC and SASO trial, and various activists with a sampling of primary documents linked to some of the pages. The Overcoming Apartheid website includes a multimedia resource page on the Black Consciousness movement with interviews from various activists. And finally, “The Black Consciousness Movement of South Africa—Material from the collection of Gail Gerhart,” filmed for the Cooperative Africana Microform Project (CAMP) is available on microfilm at the Center for Research Libraries in Chicago, Illinois.

Links to Digital Materials

Digital Innovation South Africa (DISA) .

Google Arts and Culture Institute: Steve Biko .

Overcoming Apartheid .

South African History Online .

Mubarak Aliyu

August 19th, 2021, steve biko and the philosophy of black consciousness.

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Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

The Black Consciousness Movement pioneered by Steve Biko played a crucial role in the resistance to Apartheid in South Africa. Pursuing broad coalitions alongside ideas of Black theology and indigenous values, Biko’s role in the anti-Apartheid struggle can be read as one of philosopher as much as activist.

This post is a winning entry in the lse student writing competition black forgotten heroes , launched by the firoz lalji institute for africa ..

Born 18 December 1946, Steve Biko was a South African activist who pioneered the philosophy of Black Consciousness in the late 1960s. He later founded the South African Students Organisation (SASO) in 1968, in an effort to represent the interests of Black students in the then University of Natal (later KwaZulu-Natal). SASO was a direct response to what Biko saw as the inaction of the National Union of South African Students in representing the needs of Black students.

Biko’s experiences under Apartheid drove his philosophy and political activism. He had witnessed police raids during his childhood and lived through the brutality and intimidation the Apartheid government was known for. Biko’s philosophy focused primarily on liberating the minds of Black people who had been relegated to an inferior status by white power structures, seeing the power struggle in South Africa as ‘a microcosm of the confrontation between the third world and the first world’.

The philosophy of Black consciousness

The Black Consciousness Movement centred on race as a determining factor in the oppression of Black people in South Africa, in response to racial oppression and the dehumanisation of Black people under Apartheid. ‘Black’ as defined by Biko was not limited to Africans, but also included Asians and ‘coloureds’ (South Africans of mixed race including African, European and/or Asian origin), incorporating Black Theology, indigenous values and political organisation against the ruling system.

The movement viewed the liberation of the mind as the primary weapon in the fight for freedom in South Africa, defining Black consciousness as, first, an inward-looking process, where Black people regain the pride stripped away from them by the Apartheid system. His philosophy casts a positive retelling of African history, which has been heavily distorted and vilified by European imperialists in an attempt to construct their colonies. In his writings, he notes that ‘[a] people without a positive history is like a vehicle without an engine’.

At the heart of this thinking is the realisation by blacks that the most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed

A necessary step towards restoring dignity to Black people, according to Biko, involves elevating the heroes of African history and promoting African heritage to deconstruct the idea of Africa as the dark continent. Black consciousness seeks to extract the positive values within indigenous African cultures and to make it a standard with which Black people judge themselves – the first form of resistance towards imperialism and Apartheid. According to Biko, ‘what black consciousness seeks to do is to produce at the output end of the process, real black people who do not consider themselves as appendages to white society’.

In Apartheid South Africa, Black consciousness aimed to unite citizens under the main cause of their oppression. Biko’s philosophy goes further to introduce the concept of Black theology, arguing the message in Christianity needs to be taught from the perspective of the oppressed to fit the journey of Black people’s self-realisation. According to Biko, Black theology must preach that it is a sin to allow oneself to be oppressed. Adapting Christianity to African values and belief systems is at the core of doing away with ‘spiritual poverty’.

In 1972, Biko founded the Black People’s Convention as an umbrella organisation for the Black Consciousness Movement, which had begun sweeping through universities across the nation. One year later, he and eight other leaders of the movement were banned by the South African government, which limited Biko to his home of King William’s Town. He continued to defy the banning order, however, by supporting the Convention, leading to several arrests in the following years.

On 21 August 1977, Biko was detained by the police and held at the eastern city of Port Elizabeth, where he was violently tortured and interrogated. By 11 September, he was found naked and chained to a prison cell door. He died in a hospital cell the following day as a result of brain injuries sustained at the hands of the police. Although the details of his torture remain unknown, Biko’s death has been understood by many South Africans as an assassination.

Black consciousness was beyond a movement; it was a philosophy deeply grounded in African Humanism, for which Biko should be considered not only an activist but a philosopher in his own right. His legacy remains one deeply relevant today – of resistance and self-determination in the face of widespread oppression.

All quotes are taken from Steve Biko’s selected writings in his book ‘I write what I like’ .

Photo : Steve Biko . Stained glass window by Daan Wildschut in the Saint Anna Church, Heerlen (the Netherlands), ca. 1976. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 .

About the author

Mubarak Aliyu is an MSc Development Studies candidate at LSE, with a specialism in African Development. His research interests include education reform, indigenous knowledge systems and grassroots political organisation.

Black history should be spread to empire the youth of Africans and erase the mind motive of slavery

The Born Frees ( Everyone Who Is Born During The State Of Independence Of South Africa ) Of South Africa Should Acknowledge Historical Legitimate Activists As Honoured Egalitarians And Patriots Who Fought For Freedom, Liberty & The Downfall Of Apartheid Regime. Those Legends Fought For Our Rights And Privileges We Are Currently Enjoying.

I’m The Top Learner (Historian) Of Mavalani High School Which Is Located South Africa In Limpopo.

This really helped me in my biography project and i got 85%

Thank you so much for the summary. I’m assisting a grade 5 learner with her school project

As a black South African woman in her 50s, I think it is every child’s right to know who they are. Black consciousness was and still is necessary. I’m saddened by what the apartheid regime did to us.

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Steve Biko: The Black Consciousness Movement

The saso, bcp & bpc years.

By Steve Biko Foundation

Stephen Bantu Biko was an anti-apartheid activist in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. A student leader, he later founded the Black Consciousness Movement which would empower and mobilize much of the urban black population. Since his death in police custody, he has been called a martyr of the anti-apartheid movement. While living, his writings and activism attempted to empower black people, and he was famous for his slogan “black is beautiful”, which he described as meaning: “man, you are okay as you are, begin to look upon yourself as a human being”. Scroll on to learn more about this iconic figure and his pivotal role in the Black Consciousness Movement...

“Black Consciousness is an attitude of mind and a way of life, the most positive call to emanate from the black world for a long time” - Biko

1666/67 University of Natal SRC

On completion of his matric at St Francis College, Biko registered for a medical degree at the University of Natal’s Black Section. The University of Natal professed liberalism and was home to some of the leading intellectuals of that tradition. The University of Natal had also become a magnet attracting a number of former black educators, some of the most academically capable members of black society, who had been removed from black colleges by the University Act of 1959. The University of Natal also attracted as law and medical students some of the brightest men and women from various parts of the country and from various political traditions. Their convergence at the University of Natal in the 1960s turned the University into a veritable intellectual hub, characterised by a diverse culture of vibrant political discourse. The University thus became the mainstay of what came to be known as the Durban Moment.

At Natal Biko hit the ground running. He was immediately influenced by, and in turn, influenced this dynamic environment. He was elected to serve on the Student's Representative Council (SRC) of 1966/67, in the year of his admission. Although he initially supported multiracial student groupings, principally the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS), a number of voices on campus were radically opposed to NUSAS, through which black students had tried for years to have their voices heard but to no avail. This kind of frustration with white liberalism was not altogether unknown to Steve Biko, who had experienced similar disappointment at Lovedale.

Medical Students at the University of Natal (Left to Right: Brigette Savage, Rogers Ragavan, Ben Ngubane, Steve Biko)

Correspondence designating Biko as an SRC delegate at the annual NUSAS Conference

In 1967, Biko participated as an SRC delegate at the annual NUSAS conference held at Rhodes University. A dispute arose at the conference when the host institution prohibited racially mixed accommodation in obedience to the Group Areas Act, one of the laws under apartheid that NUSAS professed to abhor but would not oppose. Instead NUSAS opted to drive on both sides of the road: it condemned Rhodes University officials while cautioning black delegates to act within the limits of the law. For Biko this was another defining moment that struck a raw nerve in him.

Speech by Dr. Saleem Badat, author of Black Man You Are on Your Own, on SASO

Reacting angrily, Biko slated the artificial integration of student politics and rejected liberalism as empty echoes by people who were not committed to rattling the status quo but who skilfully extracted what best suited them “from the exclusive pool of white privileges”. This gave rise to what became known as the Best-able debate: Were white liberals the people best able to define the tempo and texture of black resistance? This debate had a double thrust. On the one hand, it was aimed at disabusing white society of its superiority complex and challenged the liberal establishment to rethink its presumed role as the mouthpiece of the oppressed. On the other, it was designed as an equally frank critique of black society, targeting its passivity that cast blacks in the role of “spectators” in the course of history. The 7th April 1960 saw the banning of the African National Congress and the Pan African Congress and the imprisonment of the leadership of the liberation movement had created a culture of apathy

Bantu Stephen Biko

“ We have set out on a quest for true humanity, and somewhere on the distant horizon we can see the glittering prize. Let us march forth with courage and determination, drawing strength from our common plight and our brotherhood. In time we shall be in a position to bestow upon South Africa the greatest gift possible - a more human face.”

Biko argued that true liberation was possible only when black people were, themselves, agents of change. In his view, this agency was a function of a new identity and consciousness, which was devoid of the inferiority complex that plagued black society. Only when white and black societies addressed issues of race openly would there be some hope for genuine integration and non-racialism.

Transcript of a 1972 Interview with Biko

At the University Christian Movement (UCM) meeting at Stutterheim in 1968, Biko made further inroads into black student politics by targeting key individuals and harnessing support for an exclusively black movement. In 1969, at the University of the North near Pietersburg, and with students of the University of Natal playing a leading role, African students launched a blacks-only student organisation, the South African Student Organisation (SASO). SASO committed itself to the philosophy of black consciousness. Biko was elected president.

Black Student Manifesto

The idea that blacks could define and organise themselves and determine their own destiny through a new political and cultural identity rooted in black consciousness swept through most black campuses, among those who had experienced the frustrations of years of deference to whites. In a short time, SASO became closely identified with 'Black Power' and African humanism and was reinforced by ideas emanating from Diasporan Africa. Successes elsewhere on the continent, which saw a number of countries, achieve independence from their colonial masters also fed into the language of black consciousness.

SASO's Definition of Black Consciousness

Cover of a 1971 SASO Newsletter

“ In 1968 we started forming what is now called SASO... which was firmly based on Black Consciousness, the essence of which was for the black man to elevate his own position by positively looking at those value systems that make him distinctively a man in society” - Biko

Cover of a 1971 SASO Newsletter

Cover of a 1972 SASO Newsletter

Cover of SASO newsletter, 1973

Cover of a 1975 SASO Newsletter

Steve Biko speaks on BCM

The Black People’s Convention By 1971, the influence of SASO had spread well beyond tertiary education campuses. A growing body of people who were part of SASO were also exiting the university system and needed a political home. SASO leaders moved for the establishment of a new wing of their organisation that would embrace broader civil society. The Black People’s Convention (BPC) with just such an aim was launched in 1972. The BPC immediately addressed the problems of black workers, whose unions were not yet recognised by the law. This invariably set the new organisation on a collision path with the security forces. By the end of the year, however, forty-one branches were said to exist. Black church leaders, artists, organised labour and others were becoming increasingly politicised and, despite the banning in 1973 of some of the leading figures in the movement, black consciousness exponents became most outspoken, courageous and provocative in their defiance of white supremacy.

BPC Membership Card

Minutes of the first meeting of the Black People's Convention

In 1974 nine leaders of SASO and BPC were charged with fomenting unrest. The accused used the seventeen-month trial as a platform to state the case of black consciousness in a trial that became known as the Trial of Ideas. They were found guilty and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, although acquitted on the main charge of being party to a revolutionary conspiracy.

SASO/BPC Trial Coverage SASO/BPC Trial Coverage BPC Members

SASO/BPC Coverage

Poster from the 1974 Viva Frelimo Rally

Their conviction simply strengthened the black consciousness movement. Growing influence led to the formation of the South African Students Movement (SASM), which targeted and organised at high school level. SASM was to play a pivotal role in the student uprisings of 1976.

Barney Pityana, Founding SASO Member

In 1972, the year of the birth of the BPC, Biko was expelled from medical school. His political activities had taken a toll on his studies. More importantly, however, according to his friend and comrade Barney Pityana, “his own expansive search for knowledge had gone well beyond the field of medicine.” Biko would later go on to study law through the University of South Africa.

Steve Biko's Order Form for Law Textbooks

Upon leaving university, Biko joined the Durban offices of the Black Community Programmes (BCP), the developmental wing of the Black People Convention, as an employee reporting to Ben Khoapa. The Black Community Programmes engaged in a number of community-based projects and published a yearly called Black Review, which provided an analysis of political trends in the country.

Black Community Programmes Pamphlet

Overview of the BCP

BCP Head, Ben Khoapa

86 Beatrice Street, Former Headquarters of the BCP

"To understand me correctly you have to say that there were no fears expressed" - Biko

Ben Khoapa, Beatrice Street Circa 2007

Biko's Banning Order

When Biko was banned in March 1973, along with Khoapa, Pityana and others, he was deported from Durban to his home town, King William’s Town. Many of the other leaders of SASO, BPC, and BCP were relocated to disparate and isolated locations. Apart from assaulting the capacity of the organisations to function, the bannings were also intended to break the spirit of individual leaders, many of whom would be rendered inactive by the accompanying banning restrictions and thus waste away.

Following his banning, Biko targeted local organic intellectuals whom he engaged with as much vigour as he had engaged the more academic intellectuals at the University of Natal. Only this time, the focus was on giving depth to the practical dimension of BC ideas on development, which had been birthed within SASO and the BPC. He set up the King William’s Town office (No 15 Leopold Street) of the Black Community Programmes office where he stood as Branch Executive. The organisation focused on projects in Health, Education, Job Creation and other areas of community development.

No 15 Leopold Street , Former King William's Town Offices of the BCP

It was not long before his banning order was amended to restrict him from any meaningful association with the BCP. Biko could not meet with more that one person at a time. He could not leave the magisterial area of King William’s Town without permission from the police. He could not participate in public functions nor could he be published or quoted.

Zanempilo Clinic, a BPC Clinic

These restrictions on him and others in the BCM and their regular arrests, forced the development of a multiplicity of layers of leadership within the organisation in order to increase the buoyancy of the organisation. Notwithstanding the challenges, the local Black Community Programme office did well, managing among other achievements to build and operate Zanempilo Clinic, the most advanced community health centre of its time built without public funding. According to Dr. Ramphele, “it was a statement intended to demonstrate how little, with proper planning and organisation, it takes to deliver the most basic of services to our people.” Dr. Ramphele and Dr. Solombela served as resident doctors at Zanempilo Clinic.

Community Member from Njwaxa

Other projects under Biko’s office included Njwaxa Leatherworks Project, a community crèche and a number of other initiatives. Biko was also instrumental in founding in 1975 the Zimele Trust Fund set up to assist political prisoners and their families. Zimele Trust did not discriminate on the basis of party affiliation. In addition, Biko set up the Ginsberg Educational Trust to assist black students. This trust was also a plough-back to a community that had once assisted him with his own education.

Click on the Steve Biko Foundation logo to continue your journey into Biko's extraordinary life. Take a look at Steve Biko: The Black Consciousness Movement, Steve Biko: The Final Days, and Steve Biko: The Legacy.

—Steve Biko Foundation:

Steve Biko: The Early Years

Steve biko foundation, 11 february 1990: mandela's release from prison, africa media online, detention without trial in john vorster square, south african history archive (saha), steve biko: the inquest, what happened at the treason trial, steve biko: final days, 9 august 1956: the women's anti-pass march, steve biko: legacy, the signs that defined the apartheid, leadership during the rise and fall of apartheid.

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Black Consciousness Movement

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South African History Online - Black Consciousness and 16 June – The birth of a new generation
African American Registry - The Black Consciousness Movement, a story
The O'Malley Archives - Black Consciousness Movement

Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) , South African anti- apartheid movement that began in the late 1960s. Originating on university campuses, it espoused Black cultural pride and political solidarity while firmly denouncing white liberal inactivity. Though the movement began to decline after the Soweto Uprising in 1976, it left an enduring impression on resistance to apartheid in South Africa and ideas of Black identity and cultural worth across the globe.

Following the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, the South African government essentially outlawed the two major Black organizations in the country, the Pan-Africanist Congress and the African National Congress . In the absence of these two groups, Black resistance began to take a new path. The origins of Black consciousness lie in the university student organizations of the mid-1960s, wherein activists like Steve Biko —who would later become the movement’s de facto leader—began to grow disillusioned with conventional organizing. Biko had initially been part of the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) while he was a student at the Black medical school of the University of Natal. NUSAS, though anti-apartheid, was dominated by white students, which Biko viewed as an obstacle.

In an attempt to organize more radical anti-government activism, Biko and his comrades also joined the University Christian Movement (UCM), which was formed in 1967. They remained dissatisfied with the scope of the UCM’s goals, however. Convinced that a nonwhite caucus was necessary, they founded the South African Students’ Organization (SASO), which was launched in 1969. SASO welcomed all students classified by the South African government as Black African (Bantu), Coloured , or Indian into the group. The Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa was born in SASO.

Black consciousness, as defined by Biko, was the awakening of self-worth in Black populations. The movement’s leaders hoped to redefine “Black,” recognizing that the term was no longer a simple racial classification but a positive, unifying identity. Black consciousness meant recognizing one’s inherent dignity and taking pride in it. The movement borrowed heavily from the writings of W.E.B. Du Bois , who had first introduced the idea of a Black “double consciousness.” Du Bois argued that Blacks are forced by white hegemonies to reckon with opposing identities: the internal (how one views oneself) and the external (how one is viewed by an oppressive society). The BCM sought to do away with the latter identity and replace it entirely with the former.

Proponents of Black consciousness sought to remove whites from their political platform. Former white allies were denounced by SASO members as ineffectual liberals, who, when true equality was at hand, would balk, opting to protect their own status. Black liberation, they argued, had to come from within. Once achieved, whites would be able to participate once again.

The movement, with the charismatic Biko as its leader, made clear gains in the political landscape as SASO spread its ideas of Black pride and self-worth far beyond the bounds of university organizations. In 1972 the Black People’s Convention (BPC) was launched with the hopes of extending the BCM’s philosophical message to workers’ unions. The BPC organized a series of widespread and successful strikes in its first years. It grew rapidly, bringing Black consciousness to the political forefront.

The BCM’s increased power frightened the white supremacist government, which cracked down on Black organizing. Biko was officially censured in 1973 and police began to show up to BCM gatherings in force. In 1974 the BCM and BPC staged massive rallies in support of the newly formed Frelimo government in neighboring Mozambique , which had just successfully challenged the Portuguese colonial regime. These rallies led to several clashes with police. Consequently, several members of both the BCM and BPC were arrested and charged with fomenting unrest. Upon their convictions , however, the movement only grew.

BCM philosophy influenced the organization of the Soweto Uprising in 1976, which began as a massive student-led rally. Though initially a protest against Black students being forced to learn Afrikaans in school, it evolved into a general challenge to the apartheid government. The police and army responded to the uprising with brutal force. Officially, the death toll from the uprising stood at 575 people, many of them children, but the actual casualty numbers are thought to be higher. In response, protests broke out across South Africa; they were similarly quashed.

In the aftermath of the Soweto Uprising, the government arrested and tortured or killed many of the BCM’s leaders, including Biko, who died in September 1977 from a brain hemorrhage after police shackled and beat him. The government banned several Black organizations, including the BPC, the next month, making it difficult for members to meet. While the BCM may have fragmented and declined in organizing power after the Soweto Uprising and Biko’s death, its ideas remained. Biko and the BCM are hailed as forerunners of the resistance movement that eventually brought down apartheid .

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Steve Biko Calls for Black Consciousness

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Politically, the decade from 1960 to 1970 was a period of deafening silence among black South Africans. The freedom movements of the 1950s had been banned and their leaders imprisoned. In the late 1960s, new young leaders arose, bringing a fresh concept for organizing called “black consciousness.” Foremost among these activists was Steve Biko. As a university student, Biko had been involved with the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS), a multiracial civil rights organization. Later, Biko began to rethink the role that racial identity should play in anti-apartheid activism. In 1968, he co-founded the South African Students’ Organisation (SASO). This new student organization, unlike NUSAS, was open to the three groups identified as black—native Africans, “coloureds,” and Asians—but it was not open to whites. The philosophical core of SASO was black consciousness: an assertive affirmation of black identity. Sympathetic whites were encouraged to form their own organizations to fight apartheid, but Biko and other leaders believed that it was important for black South Africans to take control of their own destinies, rather than relying on white support to bring their freedom. A core idea within the Black Consciousness Movement was the need for blacks to change their mentality and free their minds from the ideas of inferiority that apartheid had long encouraged.

In the selection below, from a speech Biko gave in 1971 at a nationwide multiracial student conference, he articulates his understanding of the connection between white racism and black consciousness. He saw the power that could come from organizing as blacks. Black Consciousness spread widely among youth and was a major spark igniting the 1976 Soweto uprising and leading to a resurgence in the national freedom movement. On June 16, 1976, in the segregated township of Soweto, thousands of black students walked out of their schools and marched defiantly through the streets, demanding an end to their second-class status in education and beyond. Students in other cities responded with similar demonstrations. Across the country, the paramilitary police came out in force, killing hundreds of teenagers and imprisoning thousands. The following year, in 1977, Steve Biko was imprisoned, tortured, and left to die. Yet thousands of others continued this struggle.

White Racism and Black Consciousness We now come to the group that has longest enjoyed confidence from the black world—the [white] liberal establishment, including radical and leftist groups. The biggest mistake the black world ever made was to assume that whoever opposed apartheid was an ally. . . . How many white people fighting for their version of a change in South Africa are really motivated by genuine concern and not by guilt? . . . [A white person] possesses the natural passport to the exclusive pool of white privileges . . . . Yet at the back of his mind is a constant reminder that he is quite comfortable as things stand and therefore should not bother about change. . . . I am not sneering at the liberals and their involvement. Neither am I suggesting that they are the most to blame for the black man’s plight. Rather I am illustrating the fundamental fact that total identification [by white liberals] with an oppressed group [blacks] in a system that forces one group to enjoy privilege and to live on the sweat of another, is impossible. . . . The liberal must fight on his own and for himself. If they are true liberals they must realise that they themselves are oppressed, and that they must fight for their own freedom and not that of the nebulous “they” [blacks] with whom they can hardly claim identification. . . . . . . [I]n South Africa political power has always rested with white society. Not only have the whites been guilty of being on the offensive but, by some skillful manoeuvres, they have managed to control the responses of the blacks to the provocation. Not only have they kicked the black but they have also told him how to react to the kick. . . . [H]e is now beginning to show signs that it is his right and duty to respond to the kick in the way he sees fit. . . . It may be said that, on the broader political front, blacks in South Africa have not shown any overt signs of new thinking since the banning of their political parties [in 1960] . . . The call for Black Consciousness is the most positive call to come from any group in the black world for a long time. It is more than just a reactionary rejection of whites by blacks. The quintessence of it is the realisation by the blacks that, in order to feature well in this game of power politics, they have to use the concept of group power and to build a strong foundation for this . . . The philosophy of Black Consciousness, therefore, expresses group pride and the determination by the blacks to rise and attain the envisaged self. At the heart of this kind of thinking is the realisation by the blacks that the most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed . . . Slowly, they have cast aside the “morality argument” which prevented them from going it alone and are now learning that a lot of good can be derived from specific exclusion of whites from black institutions . . . The growth of awareness among South African blacks has often been ascribed to influence from the American “Negro” movement. Yet it seems to me that this [awareness] is a sequel to the attainment of independence by so many African states within so short a time. . . . Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda’s . . . often quoted statement was, “[Malawi] is a black man’s country; any white man who does not like it must pack up and go.” . . . Through the work of missionaries and the style of education adopted, the blacks were made to feel that the white man was some kind of god whose word could not be doubted . . . 1 To add to the white-oriented education received, the whole history of the black people is presented as a long lamentation of repeated defeats. Strangely enough, everybody has come to accept that the history of South Africa starts in 1652 [when the first whites arrived]. . . . We must seek to restore to the black people a sense of the great stress we used to lay on the value of human relationships; to highlight the fact that in the pre-van Riebeeck days [before whites arrived] we had a high regard for people, their property and life in general; to reduce the hold of technology over man and to reduce the materialistic element that is slowly creeping into the African character. In this age and day, one cannot but welcome the evolution of a positive outlook in the black world. 2

Connection Questions

In the first two paragraphs of the essay, Biko talks about the chasm between whites and blacks in South Africa. In his view, “the interests of blacks and whites in this country have . . . become . . . mutually exclusive.” What does he mean? Do you agree? How might Nelson Mandela have responded to black consciousness?

Among the criticisms Biko raises against white liberals is that they operate out of guilt and, consequently, their objection to apartheid is weak. Do you agree? Do you believe that guilt offers only a weak rationale for opposing apartheid? Biko urges whites to rethink who they are in South Africa and to realize that they too are oppressed and should act as a white group to bring freedom to their country. Do you believe white South Africans were oppressed by apartheid? If so, in what way(s)?
To clarify his argument about the role of whites in Africa, Biko approvingly quotes the founding president of Malawi, Dr. Banda. What does Banda ask whites to do?
1 In his memoir, Nelson Mandela describes the moment in high school when the revered Xhosa poet warned the students that “‘For too long we have succumbed to the false gods of the white man. But we will emerge and cast off these foreign notions. . . . ’ I was galvanized.”
2 Steve Biko, “White Racism and Black Consciousness,” in I Write What I Like: Selected Writings , ed. Aelred Stubbs (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978), 63–72.

How to Cite This Reading

Facing History & Ourselves, “ Steve Biko Calls for Black Consciousness ”, last updated July 31, 2018.

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Black Consciousness Movement vs. Apartheid in South Africa Essay

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Introduction

The system of apartheid, the movement, the influence.

31 years ago, in September 1977, Bantu Stephen Biko, a young black activist, and a fighter against apartheid in South Africa have been killed in police torture chambers. Although he was only one of many young black figures of resistance who have become victims of the special forces of the police in South Africa, he, undoubtedly, was one of the great prophets of his generation. More than 20 000 people from all of the country have gathered to honor his memory at the funeral – having collected, thus, one of the most mass demonstrations in South Africa in the seventies.

Outside of South Africa, the news about his death has stirred up a wave of criticism against the policy of apartheid. Biko called for consciousness awakening, considering it as a means of resistance to oppression, against reconciliation with existence within a system that was based on inequality. He has gone through the way from an activist of one of the student’s organizations, which united black and white students, to the leader and the ideologist of one of the largest protest movements in South Africa which struggled and fought for blacks’ rights. The short life – 30 years which has been taken away – Biko has devoted to the dethronement of apartheid’s defects, the system of a social organization that brought sufferings to the black population of South Africa.

In his representation, the black consciousness is a way to resist racism not only by the rallying of the oppressed black majority, but also by the realized formation of the fundamentally excellent system of social relations: “Black Consciousness is, in essence, the realization by the black man of the need to rally together with his brothers around the cause of their operation – the blackness of their skin – and to operate as a group in order to rid themselves of the shackles that bind them to perpetual servitude.” 1

This essay despite its introduction is not about one man, it is about the movement that was influenced by a man and played a major role in the revival of resistance to apartheid in South Africa with the main idea that the ideology of Black Consciousness was the basis of African resistances towards white domination.

The system of apartheid has its roots in the 350-year-old history of religious, land, and labor conflicts. In 1652 a group of Dutch immigrants has landed on the Cape of Good Hope and has gradually based a colony with rigid social division, living at the expense of the cultivation of the fertile earth by using the labor of slaves from Africa and Asia. In 1795 the control over territory was grasped by Great Britain, and Dutch-Afrikaners have moved in the depth of the continent and have based their new colonies. In 1899-1902 the British have suppressed a revolt in what is called the Second Boer War. “The war lasted three years and resulted mainly from a combination of personal ambition, conflict over a sea route to India, and most importantly, competition for control of the gold-mining developing in Witwatersrand.” 2

After the declaration in 1910 of the Union of South Africa in which the former territories of British and the Boers have entered, the Afrikaners united under the power of the British monarch, who appeared in the majority had accepted the constitution in which basis laid the principle of the superiority of the white race. This was followed by the legislation that set the racial segregation by which almost all the land has been assigned to white owners, and the African, Asian, and “colored” population has been gradually superseded from the political life.

Following the declaration of the Union of South Africa, South African Native National Congress has been formed, and renamed in 1923 into the African National Congress, for racial discrimination counteraction, the fight for suffrage and equality while the shifting governments of the country steadily rejected its demands. Over half a century the rights of the black population were continuously denied through various acts that put further restrictions with each one released.

For example in 1913 an act called the Natives Land Act “prohibited African purchase or lease of land outside certain areas known as “reserves” 3 The Natives (Urban Areas) Act of 1923 stated that “Africans were denied freehold property rights and were only allowed in South African cities “For so long as their presence is demanded by the wants of the white population.” 4 After the power was captured in 1948 by the extremist Nationalist party which called itself the Gesuiwerde (purified) National Party formed by D.F. Malan, the system of apartheid became rooted in South Africa until 1994. The politics and policies of apartheid separated South Africa from the rest of the world through systematic and legal segregation upheld and defined by a small but powerful white bureaucracy. 5

During the apartheid regime the culture, not only youth but also public, was frequently imposed from above, instead of being developed naturally on the basis of consciousness and historical continuity. The concept of consciousness imposed from above has been multiplied by the concept of an ethnic accessory which was defined by ideology and was supported by group interests. The policy that was born from the philosophy of the iridescent nation considers the many-sided nature and dynamism of various groups and does not accept the concepts of “natural”, static and invariable group or groups as it was treated by the apartheid’s regime.

This fact allowed the black population to start positioning themselves as the others in the cultural environment that was dominated by the white population. In South Africa, this tendency was shown in the creation of the organization under the name the “Black Consciousness Movement”. Helping black people in clearing the psychological inferiority complex which prevailed centuries over them in their political thinking and activity, and, especially, in their struggle against the domination of the white is mostly attributed to Steve Biko and the Black Consciousness Movement.

The strategy of clearing of white domination and inequality, offered to the black population by Steve Biko and the Black Consciousness Movement, was focused on the principle that carrying out any changes is possible only within the limits of the program developed by the black population. For this purpose, the black population should overcome the feeling of inferiority that was intentionally cultivated by the apartheid regime with the purpose of preserving the white domination in South Africa. “The racism we meet does not only exist on an individual basis; it is also institutionalized to make it look like the South African way of life” 6

It was in this climate that Steve Biko founded the SASO as an alternate to the existing student organizations NUSAS that was not very effective recently. The white leaders of NUSAS (National Union of South African Students) acknowledged that they faced limitations in resisting apartheid and trying to represent blacks as equals 7 . Thus, the black consciousness movement began with the formation of the SASO.

The SASO Manifesto adopted in July 1971, declared that Black Consciousness was “an attitude of mind, a way of life, in which the black man saw himself as self-defined and not as defined by others”. It required “group cohesion and solidarity” so that blacks could become increasingly aware of their collective economic and political power 8 .

Black Consciousness aimed at creating a social order dominated by a black way of life and thought, permeating a certain cultural blackness in all customs, tastes, values, religious and political principles, and all social relationships in their intellectual and moral connotation 9 . The black consciousness movement also brought to light the writings of African leaders that had been so far neglected, some of which included the works of Cheikh Anta Diop, Leopold Senghor on Negritude, Kenneth Kaunda on African humanism, and most importantly, Julius Nyerere on self-reliance and ujamaa or African socialism.

The evolving nature of the Black Consciousness Movement gave the struggle against apartheid a very dynamic front – by providing a conciliatory or revolutionary, a peaceful or violent, a bourgeois or socialist dimension to the confrontation between blacks and whites. By eschewing violence and emphasizing black cultural and psychological emancipation from white domination, the Black Consciousness Movement was initially the vehicle of a black philosophy of pride and self-affirmation invigorated by an ethic of “Christian Liberation”.

As the movement gradually came to recognize that it can be truly effective only if it addresses the real issues of class struggle and the fundamental role that the individual has in abolishing oppressive social structures, the Movement started focusing on the problem of the superstructure. As the most radical impact the black consciousness movement had on the resistance to Apartheid, the movement underlined that the black revolution which was made ineffective by the material structure can be rejuvenated only by the transformation of the black intellect. Thus, the revolution would occur only if the black mind stripped itself from submission to white hegemony and erected on its own foundations the principles of the new moral order.

While the intellectual elite stuck to the subtle points of BC ideology the common masses embraced the movement’s rhetoric in its emotional form, as a form of angry self-assertion 10 . Although the ideology was interpreted by angry youngsters as Black Consciousness and did not exactly resemble the set of complex ideas that had been elaborated by the movement’s leaders, the leaders felt that the expression of anger among the youth was a testimony to their success in inspiring blacks to assert themselves more openly 11 .

However, this anger soon led to the uprising in 1976 at Soweto, in a way that despite being a direct outcome of the movement, it marked the beginning of a decline in its mass influence.

After the 1976 unrest, there was considerable debate as to the ideology of the Black Consciousness Movement and whether the white should be included in the struggle of the black population. Some Black Consciousness leaders continued to advocate excluding whites from the pre-liberation struggle, until 1977, when Biko himself advocated greater cooperation with supportive white organizations. He stated: “We don’t have sufficient groups who can form coalitions with blacks — that is groups of whites — at the present moment. The more such groups will come up, the better to minimize the conflict”. 12 With this statement, Biko moved towards the concept of closer cooperation between white and black groups, which would later be the foundation of the UDF.

Biko, I Write What I Like, p. 49.
Lindsay Michie Eades, The End of Apartheid in South Africa (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999) p. 6.
Lindsay Michie Eades, The End of Apartheid in South Africa (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999) p. 8.
Lindsay Michie Eades, The End of Apartheid in South Africa (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999) p. 12.
Biko, I Write What I Like, p. 88.
Marx, Lessons of Struggle: South African Internal Opposition, 1960-1990. p. 52.
Gerhart, Black Power in South Africa: The Evolution of an Ideology. p. 270.
Fatton, Black Consciousness in South Africa: The Dialectics of Ideological Resistance to White Supremacy. p. 60.
Marx, Lessons of Struggle: South African Internal Opposition, 1960-1990. p.65.
Marx, Lessons of Struggle: South African Internal Opposition, 1960-1990. p. 65.
Biko, I Write What I Like, p. 151.
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Introduction

Steve Biko was a political activist who fought against apartheid in South Africa.

Bantu Stephen (“Steve”) Biko was born on December 18, 1946, in King William’s Town, South Africa . His father was a clerk and his mother was a domestic worker.

Biko began fighting against apartheid at an early age. He was expelled from Lovedale High School for his political activities. He then attended Saint Francis College. After graduating, he was admitted to the University of Natal’s medical school. In 1968 he helped start the all-black South African Students’ Organization (SASO). He became president of SASO the next year.

Black Consciousness

The SASO was based on the ideas of Black Consciousness. The leaders of the Black Consciousness movement had a new goal for change in South Africa. Other groups were working to allow blacks to participate in the current society. The leaders of the Black Consciousness movement, however, wanted blacks to establish their own society based on their own culture.

In 1972 Biko left the university and began to work for the Black Community Programmes (BCP) in Durban. The BCP provided resources to help blacks become independent. These included schools, newspapers, health clinics, and businesses. Biko believed that black South Africans needed to work together to break “the chains of oppression.”

The South African government felt threatened by Biko’s activities. It banned Biko in 1973. The ban meant that he could not move around freely or make any public statements. Biko challenged the ban by continuing to organize for the BCP.

In August 1977 Biko was arrested. The police took him to jail, where they beat him severely. On September 12, 1977, Biko died in Pretoria from his injuries. More than 20,000 people attended his funeral. His death had a major influence on the movement to end apartheid because it inspired blacks to fight for their rights.

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Conclusion: Black Consciousness Movement

It can be concluded that the death of Biko left a vacuum similar to the one created by the banning of the ANC and the PAC after Sharpeville. On the positive side, many youths had reached a level of consciousness about the plight of Blacks in apartheid South Africa that could not be ignored. Contrary to expectation in White circles that the death of Biko would signal the end of resistance, the struggle instead escalated as political activism increased.

The role played by Biko and his colleagues in the BCM, as well as in the fight for South Africa’s freedom cannot be under-estimated. Steve Biko’s life reflected the aspirations of many frustrated young Black intellectuals. Therefore, when he died, he became a martyr and symbol of Black Nationalism, and his struggle focused critical world attention on South Africa more than ever before.

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Steve Biko and the Black Consciousness Movement Grade 12 Essay Guide
Steve Biko: Black Consciousness Movement Grade 12 Essay s Topics Topic: The challenge of Black Consciousness to the Apartheid state. Introduction . Key Definitions. Civil protest: Opposition (usually against the current government's policy) by ordinary citizens of a country; Uprising: Mass action against government policy
Black Consciousness Movement Grade 12 Essay
The Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) represents a pivotal chapter in South Africa's history, particularly in the struggle against apartheid. Spearheaded by Steve Biko in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the BCM sought to empower black South Africans and dismantle the psychological chains of apartheid. This essay delves into the origins, key ...
HSTORY T2 Gr. 12 Black Consciousness Essay
Grade 12: The Challenge of Black Consciousness to the Apartheid State (Essay) PPT. Grade 12: The Challenge of Black Consciousness to the Apartheid State (Essay) PPT ... HSTORY T2 Gr. 12 Black Consciousness Essay . Free . By. History Curriculum Advisors. Download. Type: pptx . Size: 11.68MB ...
Steve Biko and the Black Consciousness Movement
The Rise of Black Consciousness. The Black Consciousness movement became one of the most influential anti-apartheid movements of the 1970s in South Africa. While many parts of the African continent gained independence, the apartheid state increased its repression of black liberation movements in the 1960s. In the latter part of the decade, the ...
Black Consciousness Movement (BCM)
Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) The crowd at Steve Biko's funeral, SAHA Original Photograph Collection. On 12 September 1977, the Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko died while in the custody of security police. The period leading up to his death, beginning with the June 1976 unrest, had seen some of the most turbulent events in South ...
Steve Biko and the philosophy of Black consciousness
This post is a winning entry in the LSE student writing competition Black Forgotten Heroes, launched by the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa. Born 18 December 1946, Steve Biko was a South African activist who pioneered the philosophy of Black Consciousness in the late 1960s. He later founded the South African Students Organisation (SASO) in ...
PDF NATIONAL SENIOR CERTIFICATE GRADE 12
Name any THREE Black Consciousness formations in which Steve Biko was actively involved. (3 x 1) Explain theroles that Dr MamphelaRamphele play ed at the Zanempilo health facility. (2 x 2) Using the information in the source and your own knowledge, comment on the impact that Steve Biko had onthe Black Consciousness Movement. (2 x 2) (3) (4)
Steve Biko: The Black Consciousness Movement
By Steve Biko Foundation. Stephen Bantu Biko was an anti-apartheid activist in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. A student leader, he later founded the Black Consciousness Movement which would empower and mobilize much of the urban black population. Since his death in police custody, he has been called a martyr of the anti-apartheid movement.
1970s: Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa
It is not part of your Grade 12 curriculum, but simply serves to refresh your memory about what you learnt in Grade 9. ... Steve Biko. The Black Consciousness Movement began to develop in South Africa during the late 1960s. The ANC was committed to an armed struggle, but Umkhonto we Sizwe was not able to seize and hold territory in South Africa ...
PDF NATIONAL SENIOR CERTIFICATE GRADE 12
4 Assessment procedures of the essay2.4.1 Keep the synop. is in mind when assessing the essay.2.4.2 During the first reading of the essay ticks need to be awarded for a relevant introduction (indicated by a bullet in the marking guideline/memorandum), each of the main points/aspects that is properly contextualized (also indicated by bullets in ...
PDF 3.2: Black Consciousness in SA in the 1970S
Led by Steve Biko. July 1971 SASO's Policy Manifesto stated: "BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS" is an attitude of mind, a way of life; The basic tenet of Black Consciousness is that the Blackman must reject all value systems that seek to make him a foreigner in the country of his birth and reduce his basic dignity; The Blackman must build up his own value ...
PDF Steve Biko and the philosophy of Black consciousness
Steve Biko. Credit: South African History Online via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0. The philosophy of Black consciousness The Black Consciousness Mo vement centred on race as a determining fact or in the oppression of Black people in South Africa, in r esponse to racial oppression and the dehumanisation of Black people under Apar theid.
PDF GRADE 12 HISTORY TEACHER NOTES
However, in the 1970s, a new movement called Black Consciousness or BC led to renewed resistance. The movement was led by a man called Steve Biko. BC encouraged all black South Africans to recognise their inherent dignity and self-worth. In the 1970s, the Black Consciousness Movement spread from university campuses into urban black communities
Black Consciousness Movement (BCM)
Steve Biko. Black Consciousness Movement (BCM), South African anti- apartheid movement that began in the late 1960s. Originating on university campuses, it espoused Black cultural pride and political solidarity while firmly denouncing white liberal inactivity. Though the movement began to decline after the Soweto Uprising in 1976, it left an ...
PDF SENIOR SECONDARY ̀ PROGRAMME 20..
However, in the 1970s, a new movement called Black Consciousness or BC led to renewed resistance. The movement was led by a man called Steve Biko. BC encouraged all black South Africans to recognise their inherent dignity and self-worth. In the 1970s, the Black Consciousness Movement spread from university campuses into urban black communities
Steve Biko Calls for Black Consciousness
Activist Steve Biko's speech links white racism to the Black Consciousness movement, calling on black South Africans to create their own power to fight oppression. Politically, the decade from 1960 to 1970 was a period of deafening silence among black South Africans. The freedom movements of the 1950s had been banned and their leaders imprisoned.
Universal Essay BCM Grade 12 2023
Critically discuss how the role and impact of Black Consciousness Movement influenced black South Africans during the 1970s [50] Universal Essay BCM. To a greater extent Steve Biko and the Black Consciousness Movement achieved to instil black pride, self-reliance, self-esteem as well as challenging the apartheid system.
Black Consciousness Movement vs. Apartheid
Introduction. 31 years ago, in September 1977, Bantu Stephen Biko, a young black activist, and a fighter against apartheid in South Africa have been killed in police torture chambers. Although he was only one of many young black figures of resistance who have become victims of the special forces of the police in South Africa, he ...
Steve Biko
Steve Biko was a founder of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa. The movement encouraged black South Africans to be proud of their culture and to stand up for their rights. Biko is regarded as a hero in black South Africans' struggle against apartheid .
Black Consciousness movement Grade 12
The Black Consciousness movement was a social and political movement that emerged in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. It aimed to empower black South Afr...
BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS MOVEMENT BCM COMPLETE ESSAY
Thanks for choosing Social Science Tv at this time of the year and we hope our content will help you. Please like, comment, watch, share and lastly subscribe...
Conclusion: Black Consciousness Movement
Conclusion: Black Consciousness Movement. It can be concluded that the death of Biko left a vacuum similar to the one created by the banning of the ANC and the PAC after Sharpeville. On the positive side, many youths had reached a level of consciousness about the plight of Blacks in apartheid South Africa that could not be ignored.
Black Consciousness Movement
The Black Consciousness Movement ... Biko died in police custody on 12 September 1977. Steve Biko was a non-violent activist, even though the movement he helped start eventually took up violent resistance. ... This was a compilation of essays that were written by black people for black people.

Steve Biko and the Black Consciousness Movement Grade 12 Essay Guide (Question and Answers)

Steve Biko and the Black Consciousness Movement Summary: A Legacy of Empowerment and Resistance

Early Life and Influences

Formation of the Black Consciousness Movement

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Arrest, Death, and Legacy

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Question 2: How did the truth and reconciliation commision assist South Africa to come in terms with the past?

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The Rise of Black Consciousness

SASO and Black Consciousness

The Broader Movement

Cultural Movement

Black Theology

Black Community Programs

The Black People’s Convention

Youth and Leadership

Clashes with the State

Post-1977 Black Consciousness Directions

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Black Consciousness Movement vs. Apartheid in South Africa Essay

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