By the 1970’s the Apartheid regime had banned both the ANC and the PAC and imprisoned most of their leadership, but inspired by the Civil Rights and Black Power movements in America a new form of resistance emerged lead chiefly by the writings and actions of a charismatic former medical student, Steve Biko. It was called the Black Consciousness Movement. The article below sums up much fo the important background to this movement:http://sahistory.org.za/article/black-consciousness-movement-bcm
Aims of the BCM
The BCM aimed to restore pride and self-acceptance in black people, to uplift them and to unify them in a common struggle for equality and freedom from white control. The rejection of whites extended to rejecting white intervention on the behalf of blacks and called for Blacks to set the terms on which whites could participate in a new South African society. The following article sheds more light on the ideology of Black Consciousness http://https://www.thoughtco.com/black-consciousness-movement-43431
The Objectives of Black Consciousness were that black people:
- had to rely on themselves (not whites or others) to improve their situation
- reject a submissive or inferior attitude towards whites
- had to resist seeing themselves as “second-class” citizens and begin to expect equal dignity and treatment
- had to restore pride in their history, language, and culture and ultimately in themselves
- should not seek integration with whites but rather the establishment of African norms
- had to realise that black pride, black power and black self-help were key to developing this consciousness
BLACK IS NOT A MATTER OF PIGMENTATION- BEING BLACK IS A REFLECTION OF A MENTAL ATTITUDE – Biko
Impact of the Black Consciousness Movement
- Formation of South African Students Organization (SASO) to mobilize awareness among black students
- Formation of the Black Peoples Convention (BPC) to organize political resistance among adults and non-students
- Directly influenced the 1976 Soweto uprising
- Stimulated the formation of black-led trade unions and widespread strikes that brought economic pressure on the apartheid government
- Death of Biko in custody unleashed worldwide outrage and pressure on the SA government
Click on the link below to see an image of a Black Consciousness Poster and answer the questions that follow about the poster
- Explain why you can assume this poster was made after Biko’s death.
- Explain clearly what is meant by the slogan in this poster.
- How would this poster have affected the average young black student in South Africa at the time and a typical middle-aged white government official?
- What does it suggest about the position of the Black Consciousness Movement and Steve Biko’s position on violence and on black attitudes?