QUESTION 4: BIKO ESSAY

Critically discus how Steve Biko and the philosophy of Black Consciousness
mobilised black South Africans to challenge the apartheid government in the
1960s and 1970s.
Support your line of argument with relevant historical evidence. [50]

Marking guidelines:
1. Introduction
2. Political Vacuum
3. Black Consciousness-Philosophy
4. Role of Biko and SASO
5. Political Organisations
6. Student Mobilisation against the apartheid state
7. Black Community Programmes (BCPs)
8. Role of Trade Unions and the Media
9. Legacy

1
 10. Conclusion
INTRODUCTION
 Candidates need to critically discuss how Steve Biko and the philosophy of Black
Consciousness mobilised black South Africans to challenge the apartheid
government in the 1960s and 1970s.
 They should also indicate how they will support their line of argument.
POLITICAL VACUUM
 A political vacuum was created after the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960 when
the National Party or Apartheid government banned, imprisoned and exiled the
political leaders of the ANC (African National Congress), the PAC (Pan African
Congress) and the SACP (South African Communist Party).
 However, in the late 1960s and 1970, a new generation of young Black,
Coloured and Indian students emerged at bush colleges and expressed a new
kind of resistance philosophy known as Black Consciousness (BC).
 The Black Consciousness philosophy aimed to mobilise black students, youth,
community members and workers to challenge the apartheid government.
BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS PHILOSOPHY
 The Black Consciousness philosophy infused black people with a sense of self-
pride, self-acceptance, self-confidence, self-reliance and a sense of self-identity.
 BC also empowered blacks to reject the spirit of self-pity, their inferiority
complexes and mental slavery which was instilled as a result of apartheid and
colonialism.
 BC philosophy used the ideas of Malcom X, Julius Nyerere and Marcus Garvey.
 The formation of BC was initially (at first) welcomed by the NP-government as an
extension of separate development or apartheid.
 When the NP government realised that BC opposed apartheid, Bantu Education
and the homeland system they started banning and detaining Black
Consciousness Movement (BCM) leaders and members.
ROLE OF BIKO AND SASO
 Steve Bantu Biko, born in King Williamstown in the Eastern Cape in 1946 was a
medical student at the black section of the white University of Natal; where he
became involved in politics when he joined the white-dominated NUSAS
(National Union of South African Students).
 In 1968, a group of black student leaders including Onkgopotse Tiro, Barney
Pityana, Mamphela Ramphele and Steve Biko broke away from NUSAS and
formed the SASO (South African Student Organisation).
 Biko, became the first president of SASO when it broke away; he was also the
most important BC thinker and writer until his death in police custody in 1977.

2
  Biko defined BC as an ‘attitude of mind and a way of life’; he wanted BC to
help ordinary Black, Coloured and Indian people in South Africa to find their own
political voice.
POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS
 For Black Consciousness to have any impact outside bush colleges (Black and
Coloured universities) it had to grow into a mass-based organisation in order to
appeal to adults in black communities and to black workers.
 Despite apartheid repression in the early 1970s, SASO formed an umbrella
BC-body called the Black People’s Convention (BPC) in 1971.
 The BPC involved students, churches, communities, the Black Parents'
Association and trade unions that aligned to the BC philosophy.
 The South African Students Movement (SASM) was formed in 1972 it
exposed (conscientised) black students to the ideals (ideology) and philosophy of
BC.
 SASM organised around the expulsion of Tiro, this led to student protests.
 The BCM and SASO organised a FRELIMO Rally (1974) in Durban to celebrate
FRELIMO’s victory over Portuguese colonialism in Mozambique; it was the
biggest public protest since the 1960s.
 The police attacked the crowd of over 5000 people beating and arresting
hundreds;
nine SASO leaders were arrested and charged under the Terrorism Act.
 Expulsion of students from universities and the arrests of BC leaders heightened
political activism and schools became sites of struggle for black students against
the effects of Bantu Education and Apartheid.
STUDENT MOBILISATION AGAINST THE APARTHEID STATE
 It was particularly in Soweto, where the uprising against Bantu Education would
prove to be a crossroads or turning point in the fight against the Apartheid State.
 With SASO and SASMs influence, the Soweto Students Representative
Council (SSRC) was formed to protest against Afrikaans as language of
instruction.
 Both black teachers and students rejected/ perceived/ viewed Afrikaans as the
language of the white oppressors/ Afrikaners/ Boers.
 Some teachers and learners were already exposed (conscientised) to the ideas
of Biko, the BC-philosophy through SASO student teachers and boycotted
classes.
 The Afrikaans Decree was the trigger for the Soweto uprising on 16 June 1976;
SASM and the SSRC organised a peaceful march to the Orlando Stadium.
 The students marched with posters saying “TO HELL WITH AFRIKAANS!” and
the police responded by killing Hector Petersen, a 13-year-old boy; many other
students were teargassed, sjambokked, shot, killed, arrested and detained.

3
  The state or police reaction to the student march turned a peaceful march into a
nationwide explosion of youth anger and frustration; the protest against Afrikaans
grew into a spontaneous outburst of anger against the whole system of Apartheid
and state repression.
 As a result, many angry youths left South Africa to join armed struggle on the
side of the ANC-in-exile and as well as its military wing, Umkhonto weSiswe
(MK).
 The Soweto Uprising forced the Apartheid State to abolish (scrap) the hated
Afrikaans Decree.
BLACK COMMUNITY PROGRAMMES (BCPs)
 Biko's banishment to King Williams Town and Mamphela Ramphele’s
banishment to Tzaneen led the BCM to divert its focus to Black Community
Programmes.
 In an attempt to put down roots in black communities, Biko and Dr Mamphela
Ramphele, started a model community health project called Zanempilo
Community Health Centre in 1975 in King Williamstown in the Eastern Cape.
 Other projects included the Ginsburg Educational Trust, Zimele Trust Fund for
imprisoned political activist, the Solempilo Community Health Centre, Ithuseng
Community Health Programme as well as Winter School Projects.
 BCPs also uplifted black communities with soup kitchens, food gardens,
literacy projects and self-help schemes similar to the Black Panthers projects in
the USA.
 The Black Community Programmes was therefore established to promote black
people’s independence from whites by giving support to black communities
without white assistance (help).
ROLE OF THE TRADE UNIONS AND THE MEDIA
 Some SASO leaders formed the Black Allied Workers Union (BAWU) in order
to draw more workers to Black Consciousness in the early 1970s.
 Mobilisation through the trade unions led to dockworker's strikes in Durban.
 The BCM used BC-aligned media to make South Africans and the world aware of
police brutality against the youthful protestors on June 16, 1976.
 As a result of this, The World and The Weekend World newspapers were
closed by apartheid government in October 1977.
LEGACY
 In August 1977 Biko was arrested in Port Elizabeth after secretly visiting activist
in Cape Town.
 He was detained under Section 6 of the Terrorism Act and brutally assaulted in
police custody and died of his injuries on 12 September 1977 in Pretoria
 On 19 October 1977 the apartheid government banned of 19 organisations
aligned to BC.

4
  In 1978 a group of BC-leaders formed the Azanian People’s Organisation
(AZAPO) as the true heir to Black Consciousness.
 Many BC supporters joined the ANC, today they have prominent roles in
government and society.
 Mamphela Ramphele became the Chancellor of UCT and a Director of the
World Bank in 2013 and Barney Pityana became the Rector of Wits University.
 BC also renewed a sense of black pride and helped diminish inferiority
complexes.
CONCLUSION: Candidates should sum up their argument with a relevant conclusion.