THE BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS MOVEMENT

1. TIMELINE
2. HISTORY
3. WILLIAM EDWARD DURGHARDT DU BOIS
4. MARCUS GARVEY
5. JOMO KENYATTA
6. ROBERT MANGALISO SOBUKWE
7. STEPHEN BANTU BIKO

1. Timeline

1903
William Edward Durghardt Du Bois publishes The Souls of Black Folk rejecting the
notion that Black people need western values be to accepted as citizens. Du Bois
calls for Black Consciousness among all Africans throughout the world.
1919
19 February 1919: The Pan African Congress is held in Paris, France and is
headed by William Edward Durghardt Du Bois. A firm supporter of the ‘Back to
Africa’ movement in the United States of America, Marcus Garvey founds the
African Communities League and the ‘Black Star Line’ (part of the Universal Negro
Improvement Association (UNIA)), with the intention of ‘bringing home’ the African
Americans.
1944
2 April, The African National Congress Youth League is co-founded by Muziwakhe
Anton Lembede, its first president.
1945
The fifth Pan-African Congress is held in Manchester, England, shortly after
the end of World War II. This a critical event in exposing African scholars to
ideas and strategies on seeking independence for African colonies using Black
Consciousness ideology. The theme of the congress covers an end to colonial rule
and political independence.
1946
18 December, Bantu Stephen Biko born in Kingwilliamstown
1952
October, The Mau Mau Rebellion begins in Kenya. Jomo Kenyatta is arrested by
the British colonisers on the suspicion of being the main architect of the rebellion.
His Africanist approach is influential on the development of Black Consciousness
 among South African Black activists.
1955
26 June: The Congress of the People is formed. A Congress Alliance, bringing
together theAfrican National Congress (ANC) and the South African Indian
Congress (SAIC) results in the adoption of the Freedom Charter at Kliptown.
1957
6 March: Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast) achieves independence under the
leadership ofKwame Nkrumah.
1958
f
December: The Sixth Pan African Congress, held in Africa for the first time, takes
place in Accra, Ghana (formerly Gold Coast) under the chairmanship of Kwame
Nkrumah.
1959
6 April: Robert Sobukwe and others break away from the African National
Congress (ANC) to form the Pan African Congress (PAC). They argue that the
Congress Alliance reasserts and emphasises ‘White-imposed racial division’ by
organising itself along racial and ethnic lines. Sobukwe believes that the Congress
Alliance is shifting from the ideology of Black Consciousness.
The Extension of University Education Act is passed, to channel students into
segregated tertiary institutions, providing a breeding ground for the development
of black nationalism. The Act made it illegal for white universities to allow black
students to be enrolled unless they had special permission from the state.
1960
21 March: The PAC campaign against pass laws, in which people were asked to
leave their passes at home and present themselves to be arrested by police, ends
with police opening fire on the crowd in Sharpville, killing 69 protesters. In the wake
of the Sharpeville Massacre, African students loyal to the African National Congress
(ANC) establish the African Students’ Association (ASA), Pan African Congress
(PAC) sympathizing students form the African Students’ Union of South Africa
(ASUSA), and those loyal to the Non-European Unity Movement(NEUM) form other
organisations in the Cape and Natal. However none of these organisations survives
long, since identification with banned movements is hazardous, and university
authorities are hostile to student political groups. Non-cooperation between peers in
different student political groupings makes matters worse.
8 April: The African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress
(PAC) are banned in South Africa.
1963
1963-64: African students begin focussing their attention on the multi-racial
National Union of South African Students (Nusas), an outspoken anti-government
 organisation with a membership drawn heavily from White English-speaking
universities, for want of a better vehicle to express their political aspirations.
Steve Biko is introduced to politics as a teenager, when one of his older brothers,
Khaya, a student at Lovedale High School, is arrested as a suspected Poqo
member and jailed for three months. The South African Police interrogate Steve
Biko in connection with his brother’s Pan Africanist activities, and Steve Biko is
subsequently expelled from Lovedale. Biko develops a strong antipathy toward
White authority, and carries this attitude with him when he enters St Francis
College at Marianhill in Natal, a liberal Catholic boarding school and one of the few
remaining private high schools for Africans in South Africa.
1964
With the Rivonia trial still in progress, Nusas delegate Martin Legassic attends
a student conference in Dar es Salaam, then Tanganyika, at which Nusas is
condemned for not being representative of the black majority. This provokes a
deep questioning of the role of Nusas within the organisation, with radial elements
arguing to cut Nusas ties with its moderate student base and realigning the
organisation with the liberation movements.
In April, Jonty Driver delivers a speech at a Nusas conference at Botha’s Hill,
arguing that the organisation would be weakened if it broke away from its student
base, but also saying that idealy, the organisation should be led by black students,
and that its political activities were much more important than its involvement in
student affairs. Driver’s speech was leaked to the national press and presented as
official Nusas policy, and at the next Nusas conference, Driver is censured, marking
a rightward shift over the next few years.
Former Nusas students engaged in subversive actiity under the umbrella of the
African Resistance Movement are arrested
In the face of strong opposition from rank-and-file members, mostly White, to some
of its more "radical" policies, the Nusas shifts rightwards, confining itself to symbolic
multiracial activities and protests after-the-fact against government infringements
on academic freedom. This marks the beginning of a phase of deep frustration for
the small Black membership, as virtually all channels for the expression of anti-
apartheid sentiment are closed.
The World Student Christian Federation calls on South Africa’s Student Christian
Association to reject segregation, and the SCA withdrew from the federation,
eventually leading to a split in the SCA along racial lines, setting the scene for the
launch of the University Christian Movement in 1967.
1965
Steve Biko matriculates after finishing his schooling at St Francis College in
Marianhill in Natal.
1966
 After completing his studies at Marianhill, Steve Biko enters the Natal
University’s ‘non-White’ medical school, familiarly known as Wentworth. A vastly
talented political analyst, he is soon elected to the Students’ Representative Council
(SRC) and through the SRC he is drawn into Nusas activities. Biko lives in the
Alan Taylor Residence of the university in Wentworth, where African, Indian and
Coloured students are housed on an equal basis.
July: Steve Biko attends the annual Nusas Congress as an observer. He impresses
the Nusas leadership enormously and is considered for grooming to become the
first black president of Nusas, and invited to a Nusas leadership training seminar.
At the conference, about a quarter of the delegates are African, Coloured or Indian.
The black students put forward a motion to cancel annual fund-raising festivals
(rags) unless hey were racially integrated, but the motion is defeated.
late 1966: John Vorster becomes prime minister and vows to curb the activities of
Nusas
1967
July: The University Christian Movement (UCM) is formed, mainly by a group of
liberal white clergymen, including Basil Moore, a Methodist minister and theology
lecturer at Rhodes University and Colin Collins, a Catholic priest who was chaplain
to the National Catholic Federation of Students. About 90 students and clergymen
attended the founding congress in Grahamstown, many of them black, and
an executive committee was elected, with Moore as president. The executive
committee included Collins and Winifred Kgware. The UCM established 30
branches over the next two years at universities, seminaries and training colleges.
Steve Biko remains in Grahamstown to participate in the annual Nusas Congress
as a Wentworth Delegate. The congress sees bitter reactions from Black students
when Rhodes University, the host institution, prohibits mixed accommodation or
eating facilities at the conference site. The Black students put forward a motion to
suspend the congress until a nonracial venue is found, but the motion is defeated,
42 voting against, and nine in support of the motion. The Black students (led by
Biko) begin to question their status within Nusas and consider a black breakaway
group.
December, Basil Moore and two black students attend the annual conferene of the
American UCM in Cleveland, Ohio. They raise funds that allow the UCM to hire a
full-time secretary, buy a car and cover programme costs.
1968
July: At the Annual Nusas Congress, Steve Biko and some of his fellow medical
students begin to draw black students into a candid discussion on their second-
class role within the union.
The UCM holds its second national conference at Stutterheim, where 60 percent of
the delegates are black. Biko, also at the conference, begins to actively promote the
 idea of an all-black university movement.
August: The UCM’s Colin Collins attends a conference of the World Student
Christian Federation in Finland, saying on his return: "In theology and social action
South africa is a geographic and cultural backwater of the world."
Folowing a government veto on the apointment of an African anthropologist, Archie
Mafeje, as a lecturer at University of Cape Town, students at Fort Hare boycott the
appointment of their new principal, JM de Wet. The ’ringleaders were identified and
subject to police questining, with over 300 students suspended by September. Most
of these were allowed to return to campus, but 22 were expelled, including Barney
Pityana, Kenneth Rachidi, Justice Moloto and Chris Makoditoa.
late 1968: The UCM is barred from holding meetings at Fort Hare, Turfloop, Ngoye
and the University of the Western Cape.
During the Christmas recess, a meeting takes place at Marianhill, and is attended
by about thirty members of Black University Students’ Representative Councils.
From analysing the Nusas experience from this group, Steve Biko finds an
encouraging receptiveness to his idea of an all-Black organisation. The name South
African Students’ Organisation (Saso) is chosen and plans are laid for a formal
inaugural conference.
1969
1969-70: The SA Council of Churches, in collaboration with the Christian Institute,
launches a programme for research into the black community, called Study Project
for Christianity in Apartheid South Africa (Spro-cas)
1 July: The constitution of the South African Students’ Organisation (Saso) is
adopted at the inaugural conference and Steve Biko is elected president. Other
leading party members include: Barney Pityana,Harry Nengwekhulu, Hendrick
Musi, Petrus Machaka, Manana Kgware, Aubrey Mokoape, J Goolam and Strini
Moodley. Though the new organisation is committed to a philosophy of Black
Consciousness, it does not reject the liberalism of Nusas right away.
1970
Colin Collins of the UCM decides to leave the priesthood.
July: Saso’s first General Students’ Council is convened, where the organisation
takes a bolder stance. The organisation encourages contact between SASO
and other multi-racial organisations such as the UCM and the Institute of Race
Relations, but recognition of Nusas as a "true" national union of students is
withdrawn. The term ’black consciousness’ enters Saso discourse, and in July 1971
is set out for the first time in Saso’s Policy Manifesto as follows:
i) "BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS" is an attitude of mind, a way of life;
ii) The basic tenet of Black Consciousness is hat the Blackman mus reject all value
systems that seek to make him a foreigner in the country of his birth and reduce his
basic dignity;
 iii) The Blackman must uild up his own value systems, see himself as self-defined
and not as defined by others."
The organisation encourages contact between Saso and other multi-racial
organisations such as the United Christian Movement (UCM) and the Institute
of Race Relations, but recognition of National Union of South African Students
(Nusas) as a "true" national union of students is withdrawn. Saso becomes
identified with a well-articulated ideology of Black Consciousness.
Mosibudi Mangena enrols as a student at Ngoye, and is exposed to Saso ideas
through speeches by Biko, Pityana and Nengwekhulu
Basil Moore publishes a paper, titled "Towards a Black Theology", which is
enthusiastically received, and sparks off a Black Theology Project within the UCM,
to be co-ordinated by Stnley Ntwasa, a student at the Federal Theological Seminary
at Alice. Moore begins to disseminate the works of James Cone, the originator of
Black Theology in the United States.
Smangaliso Mkhatshwa provokes controversy in Catholic circles by publishing a
Black Priests’ Manifesto, which sets out the grievances of black priests and calls
for the Africanisation of church structures.
August: In an article published in Saso’s newsletter, Steve Biko writes: "The
integration they (liberals) talk about...is artificial ... a one-way of course, with the
Whites doing all the talking and the Blacks the listening."
1971
January: Biko, speaking at the Abe Bailey Institute in Cape Town, openly criticises
the ANC’s policy of political alliances
South African Students’ Organisation (Saso) helps launch Black Community
Programmes (BCP).
March: UCM holds a seminar on black theology
April: After Biko, Pityana, Mokoape and Lindelwa Mabandla hold meetings with
various black organizations in March, a meeting is held in Bloemfontein with
IDAMASA as convener. Representatives of Saso, Idamasa, Asseca, Aica, the
YMCA and members of the St Peters Old Boys’ Association. A subsequent meting
in Edendale in mid-August produced an agreement to form a confederation of
African organisations to promote community development programmes and
represent African political opinion. The Edendale gathering chooses Drake Koka
to head an ad hoc committee to convene a follow-up meeting. Ben Khoapa (of
the YMCA) and Biko were commissioned to produce a draft constitution for the
organisation. At a mid-December conference at the YMCA in Orlando, the Saso
bloc push through a resolution in favour of a more overtly political organisation,
based on Black Consciousness philosophy, and using its expanded definition
of "black". This would result in the launch of the Black People’s Convention (BPC)
in July 1972.
 July: Saso passes a resolution on Black Theology at its conference in Wentworth,
declaring that Christianity in SA has proved to be a support for the status quo and
oppression
Saso adopts a policy manifesto, stating the centrality of the Black Consciousness
doctrine.
Saso establishes relations with two student funding organisations based in the UK;
World University Services and the International University Exchange Fund
After receiving a military call-up, Colin Collins goes into exile.
Strini Moodley and Saths Cooper, members of the Natal Indian Congress (NIC)
urge other Indian activists to embrace the Black Consciousness ideology. Although
there is sympathy among NIC members, they view Saso’s ideology of Black
Consciousness as potentially leading to Black racism.
1972
early 1972: Basil Moore, formerly of the UCM, and by now banned, goes into exile.
January: Spro-cas, with money raised by Beyers Naudé from European churches,
launches Black Community Programmes (BCP), with Ben Khoapa as director
A book of papers from seminars on Black Theology, titled Essays on Black
Theology, published by UCM
early 1972: Basil Moore and Stanley Ntwasa of the UCM are banned
29 April: OR Tiro delivers a blistering speech at the Turfloop graduation ceremony,
attacking apartheid education and anticipating a movemen of national liberation
South African Students’ Movement (Sasm) launched, a high school-based youth
organisation
3 May: Onkgopotse Abram Tiro is expelled from Turfloop, sparking a student
boycott of lectures the next day. Eventually, all 1146 students are expelled. Tiro
eventually gets a job as a history teacher at Morris Isaacson School in Soweto,
but is fired after six months as authorities put pressure on the school, where high
school students join the South African Students Movement
12 May: Saso holds formation school at Federal Theological Seminary in Alice,
producing the Alice Declaration. The Declaration resolves that students nationwide
should close down Black institutions of higher education through lecture boycotts
in support of the expelled, Onkgopotse Abram Tiro, from the University of the North
(Turfloop)
1 June: every major black campus endorses the strike, eventually leading to Saso
being banned on many campuses. The planned reopening of the University of
the North (Turfloop) fails. Their grievances go beyond the Turfloop expulsions to
reiterate long-standing student complaints about domination by White staff, biased
curricula and demeaning campus conditions.
2 June: White students at UCT demonstrate in solidarity with black striking
students, and are viciously baton charged by police outside St George’s Cathedral.
Press coverage of the white demonstration eclipses the strikes by black students,
and newspapers cry out against the Afrikaner treatment of English students at
liberal campuses
2-9 June: Themba Sono is ousted as South African Students’ Organisation (Saso)
President, in a General Student Council meeting held in Hammanskraal. Sono
stands for close co-operation between Saso and some homeland leaders. Chief
Gatsha Buthelezi seen by as an undeniable force in South Africa politics. Saso
advocates a radical approach towards the homeland leaders, calling them puppets
of the Pretoria regime.
The Theatre Council of Natal, a politically committed Indian drama group which
included Strini Moodley and Saths Cooper, decides to devote itself exclusively to
black audiences.
MDALI (Music, Dance, Art and Literature Institute) formed to combat exploitation by
white impresarios
July: Black People’s Convention (BPC) formally launched at a conference in
Edendale, with Reverend Mashwabanda Mayatula as interim head and Drake Koka
as interim secretary general.
mid-1972: The Schlebusch Commission is appointed to investigate the activities of
liberal organisations.
mid-1972: UCM disbands, bequeathing many of its funds to Saso, while its Joburg
offices are taken over by BPC.
mid-1972: BPC establishes he Black Allied Workers’ Union (Bawu), which evolved
out of the Sales and Allied Workers’ Association which was begun by Drake Koka.
Bawu set up offices in Joburg and Durban, espouses Black Consciousness and
critises the paternalism of the white-led Trade Union Council of SA.
July: Saso holds a symposium on "Creativity and Black Development", releasing
the contents of the gathering in book form soon after.
Saso holds conference in Hammanskraal. After the conference, small groups of
Saso members begin to leave the country, crossing the border into Botswana, to
join the exiled liberation movements. Saso expels journalists from The Star and The
Rand Daily Mail from its conference, because white reporters were sent and also
because of the papers’ refusal to use the word “black” in place of “non-white”.
July: The Chatsworth train boycott and a public stance on foreign investment
attracts more attention to the Black People’s Convention (BPC).
August: Biko quits his medical studies and becomes a paid staffer at Black
Community Programmes (BCP)
September: Bokwe Mafuna, a journalist with trade union experience, tasked with a
plan to initiate a national Black Workers’ Council
New Saso-dominated SRC elected at UWC, with a 61% student turnout after a
Saso branch begins to operate on the campus, but university authorities refuse
 to recognise the new SRC and collude with security police who question many
students
16 December: BPC holds its first annual congress in Hammanskraal, with
delegates from 25 newly formed branches (each having at least 25 members).
Winifred Kgware is elected national president. Interim head Reverend
Mashwabanda Mayatula’s address calls for economic justice and puts forward
reasons why blacks should reject homelands. BPC’s Constitution declares it
intends to preach and popularise the philosophy of Black Consciousness and black
solidarity.
December, Activist Mthuli Shezi, who inspired Black Consciousness ideas through
his writings and plays, dies. He is pushed beneath a moving train at Germiston
Station for standing up for the dignity of Black women who were being drenched
with water by a White station cleaner.
1973
January - February: Durban is swept by a wave of spontaneous strikes by Black
workers. This prompts reserved acknowledgment from industry, and attracts
worldwide publicity. Though none of the Black organisations can claim credit for the
strikes, nonetheless the strikes demonstrate the potential for successful industrial
action. Many Black radicals consider the possibility of forming a student-worker
alliance. The Black People’s Convention (BPC) declares its support for the Durban
strikers.
January: Spro-cas and the Christian Institute launch Ravan Press, a publishing
house for their books as well as for BC publications such as the Black Viewpoints
series and the book-length Black Review (published from 1972 to 1976)
26 February: Eight BC leaders banned: Biko, Pityana, Nengwekhulu, Jerry
Modisane, Strini Moodley (then Saso president and publications director), Drake
Koka and Saths Cooper of BPC, and Bokwe Mafuna, whose banning scuttles the
birth of the BWC. Henry Isaacs, a law student at UWC, becomes acting president
of Saso, Tiro becomes permanent organiser and Ben Langa replaces Pityana
as secretary general. Bko continues as a field officer of BCP, but moves to King
William’s Town because of his banning order.
8 March: In Parliament, Helen Suzman refers to the BC movement as the "ugly
stepchild of apartheid’s racism".
BPC national organiser Mosibudi Mangena detained and convicted on charges
under the Terrrorism Act, for allegedly trying to recruit two policemen for guerilla
training. This forms part of a campaign by the authorities to stop BC activity: printers
of BC material are raided, activists are detained and interrogated, Saso and BPC
offices are raided and searched throughout the country.
"Black Images" festival featuring mostly Indian performers from the Theatre Council
of Natal exhorts audiences to identify themselves as back
 Gibson Kente performs How Long?, a political play catering for an increasing
receptiveness to "relevant" entertainment
May: BCP forms the National Youth Organisation (Nayo), an umbrella body for
regional youth organisations
5 June: UWC’s SRC issues Die Geel Dokument (the yellow document), listing
student grievances and calling on authorities to effect reforms. Students hold a
mass meeting on 8 June after the administration fails to respond, and security
police detain Saso president Henry Isaacs on 9 June . The students erupt in protest
and the university is closed down, announcing that all students would have to
apply for readmission. At a mass meeting at St John’s Cathedral in Belville on
12 June, students vote to reject the readmission process and call for student/
parent committees. The move generates a wave of support from parents, clergy,
journalists and graduates nationwide. the protests culminate in a rally at Athlone
Athletic Park on 8 July , with a crowd of about 10 to 12 thousand people. Speakers
include Gatsha Buthelezi, Sonny Leon and Adam Small (who resigned from his
position as an academic at UWC), and Fatima Meer. The rally was the largest
political demonstration in SA since Sharpeville. Two days later the university
announces that all students will be readmitted, but protests continue, and the
university appoints a commission to look into student grievances and replaces the
white rector with a Coloured rector.
Shanti, a play written by Mthuli Shezi, is performed in Durban and the Transvaal
by the People’s Experimental Theatre (PET) troupe. They also stage Requiem for
Brother X, a play inspired by Malcolm X.
September: Bokwe Mafuna and Harry Nengwekhulu cross the border into
Botswana, later to be joined by Tiro, Tebogo Mafole of BCP, and Willie Nhlapo.
Relations with the exiled liberation movements are strained and the question of BC
organisations forming a "third force" begin to surface.
October: Ben Khoapa banned and put under house arrest
Mangena’s terrorism trial ends in his conviction.
Mid-December: BPC, after a rapid beginning, with 25 branches formed in the first
six months, manages to organise only 34 branches by mid-December, reflecting a
failure to draw independent African churches, as envisaged earlier in Mayatula’s
1972 speech.
By the end of 1973, a dozen or more leaders have been banned, including all
members except one (Winifred Kgware) of BPC’s national executive.
1974
Baleka Kgositsile is active in the Black Consciousness Movement as well as the
ANC underground.
February: Tiro is killed by a parcel bomb
25 April: Portuguese dictator Marcello Caetano is toppled, setting off a process
 of phased transition to the independence of Portuguese colonies, including
Mozambique and Angola
Lack of capital for a black-owned newspaper sees the project scuttled, prompting
black journalists to form the Union of Black Journalists (UBJ)
The UBJ’s Percy Qoboza succeeds Moerane as editor of The World
September: The Durban branch of Saso announces it will hold a rally to
celebrate Frelimo’s impending takeover of power in Mozambique, with Frelimo
representatives invited to make speeches at Curries Fountain in Durban. Turfloop
was also set to hold a rally, but planned rallies in other centres couldn’t be
organised in time. On September 24, Minister of Justice Jimmy Kruger announces
a ban on the rallies. On the 25th September, police used dogs and truncheons
to disperse several thousands of people gathering to hold a rally outside Curries
Fountain in defiance of the ban. At Turfloop students hang posters on the
campus, and police break up a large indoor meeting. After interventions by the
administration, the staff association and the SRC, police withdraw, but white
lecturers driving into campus are roughed up after displaying racist attitudes. On
September 27, the university is closed for two weeks, during which time police carry
out raids on suspected leaders.
Following the arrest of various Durban Saso activists, Mapetla Mohapi and Malusi
Mpumlwana are despatched from King William’s Town to Durban to run Saso’s
headquarters. Saso activists in Durban begin cultivating links with the ANC
underground in Natal
From late 1974: The ANC shifts focus from Botswana to Swaziland for recruiting
new cadres.
By late 1974: 20 activists from Saso, BCP, Bawu and Tecon are banned
December: The Black Renaissance Convention sees 300 representatives of black
organisations meet over four days in Hammanskraal. Organised by clergymen
Maurice Ngakane of the SACC and Smangaliso Mkhatshwa of SACBC. The
meeting brought together representatives of black religious, educational, civic,
labour, sports and welfare organisations. Several factors irked BC organisations:
the steering committee did not include members of BC organisations, and several
officials from homeland administrations were invited, with Collins Ramusi of Lebowa
giving the opening address. Saso and BPC arrived in a bloc of about 20 people and
steered the convention to adopt a militant declaration of principles, calling for black
trade union recognition and sanctions against SA.
1975
January: Thirteen activists who organised the Viva Frelimo rallies, all in detention,
are charged with offenses under the Terrorism Act. Eventully only nine are charged
after state witnesses leave the country.
February: At the Saso Nine pre-trial hearing, the defendants emerge from the
holding cells singing a protest song, waving the Black Power fist and generally
behaving in an insubordinate manner.
18 February: Announcement at Turfoop University that all activities of Saso are
suspended
March: At another hearing in the Saso Nine trial, the defendants repeat their earlier
display of insubordination, and this time scuffle with the police when relatives are
prevented from making contact with the prisoners.
Mamphele Ramphele founds Zanempilo Community Health Centre in Zinyoka,
outside King Wiliam’s Town
early 1975:The West Rand Administration Board announces that theatre producers
will have to submit scripts for review before they can be performed in townships.
Gibson Kente’s play Too Late is banned, unbanned and banned again. Three
months later, Reverend Mxwandile Maqina’s Give Us This Day ’took Soweto by
storm’, according to The World. The play is eventually banned in May 1976.
6 May: The government announces that it will provide free and compulsory
education for black children
May: Steve Biko holds a clandestine meeting with Robert Sobukwe and obtains the
assurance of the banned PAC leader’s full support in attempts to reunite the ANC
and PAC. Biko also begins, through Mapetla Mohapi and Malusi Mpumlwana, to
create a dialogue with Griffiths Mxenge and Harry Gwala, senior ANC underground
operatives, and with the PAC’s Zeph Mothopeng. Plans to hold a secret meeting by
Christmas 1975 had to be aborted.
9 June: Le Grange Commission reports on activities of UCM, defunct since 1972,
declaring that as a multiracial organisation it engaged in dangerous activities aimed
at violent revolution
25 June: Mozambique becomes independent under Frelimo
August: The trial of the Saso Nine begins, officially designated The State vs
Cooper and eight others, at the Pretoria High Court. Accused of conspiring to bring
about revolutionary change and inciting anti-white hostility, the trial lasts 17 months
Several key activists from Natal medical School, all members of Saso national
executives from 1975 to 1977, are recruitrd by the ANC, initiating "Phase Two" of
the BC programme. They take as their task steering BC activists to identify with the
aims, ideology and leadership of the ANC.
Mid-December: BPC holds its fourth national conference in King William’s Town.
Conference refines the definition of black consciousness to align the BC movement
with the ANC’s multiracialism, uses the name Azania to refer to South Africa, and
attempts to define the concept of "black communalism". After the conference, Biko,
Kenneth Rachidi and Mxolisi Mvovo draw up draft papers on black communalism
in preparation for a conference. These papers, known as the Mafikeng Manifesto,
and containing policies on BC economic policy, are debated at a symposium in
 Mafikeng in May 1976.
1976
April: Baleka Kgositsile goes into exile to join the ANC underground
May: Steve Biko testifies for five days at the Saso Nine trial, turning the trial into an
open "seminar on the history, aims and principles of Black Consciousness".
13 June: Lindiwe Sisulu is detained
Representatives from Soweto schools meet at the Naledi branch of SASM, and
decide to protest on 16 June. The Soweto Students Representative Committee
(SSRC) formed to organize the protest
16 June: The Soweto Uprisings begin with about 20 000 students marching
in protest against the new language decree and the Bantu Education system.
The march turns violent with many students being killed by the South African
Police (SAP) . The uprising spreads countrywide, and it is believed that the Black
Consciousness movement contributed significantly to the ferment behind the
uprising.
19 June: Government Gazette announces that 123 people have been banned as a
result of the June 16 revolt. nationwide prohibition on meetings announced
25 June: The death toll in the riots is officially given as 174 blacks and two whites,
the number of wounded 1,222 blacks and six whites, the number of persons
arrested 1,298. Property damaged or destroyed is officially listed as sixty-seven
state owned beer halls and bottle stores, fifty-three administration buildings, thirteen
schools, eight state hostels, 154 vehicles, as well as banks. clinics, bus sheds,
hostels and factories - public buildings and amenities built up over the previous
twenty-five years.
27 June: The National President of the Black People’s Convention declares that
riots have ushered in a new era of political consciousness.
Further arson occurs on Langa Post Office and Zimosa school.
July: The Minister of Police imposes a nationwide prohibition of meetings, which is
renewed until the end of the year.
6 July: The government announces that teaching in Afrikaans in black schools will
no longer be compulsory.
6 July: The South African Government annuls the regulation that African pupils be
instructed equally in English and Afrikaans, and issues new regulations leaving the
choice of the medium of instruction to school principals, subject to approval by the
Government.
August: The police begin arresting black leaders, not only members of the Black
Peoples Convention (BPC) and the South African Students’ Organisation (SASO),
but also members of the Soweto Black Parents’ Organisation.
4 August: Riots erupt again in Soweto and spread to other townships in South
Africa. The Minister of Justice again bans public meetings under the Riotous
 Assemblies Act, until the end of August.
5 August: Mapetla Mohapi dies in detention, police claim he hung himself with a pair
of jeans.
23-25 August: A three-day strike is observed in Soweto by between 150,000 and
200,000 workers.
13- 15 September: A second strike call in Soweto leads to absenteeism estimated
at 75-80 percent in Johannesburg.
17 October: The township of Soweto flares into violence again. An estimated
75,000 Pounds Sterling damage is caused. Incidents are also reported from Cape
Town, Pretoria and Krugersdorp.
21 October: The Minister of Justice J. Kruger says that 697 people are being held
for security reasons: 123 under the Internal Security Act; 217 under the Terrorism
Act; thirty-four are jailed for their protection as witnesses; 323 are held for cases
pending in relation to public security.
18 November: The Cillié Commission into recent riots is given a detailed account of
the loss of life and damage to property in the Greater Cape Town area.
15 December: The South African Institute of Race Relations reports that 433 people
are known to be still in custody. According to their sources, these comprise fifty-
six school children, seventy-two university students, twenty-six student leaders
and office-bearers of the South African Students’ Organization and related
organizations, twenty-five members of other Black Consciousness organizations,
sixteen churchmen, thirty-five teachers and lecturers, fifteen journalists, sixty state
witnesses, six trade unionists, thirteen former political prisoners, one member of the
Coloured Labour Party and eighty-one who have no known connection with political
organizations. Of this total, 102 were in preventative detention, with no charges
pending. In addition, according to the SAIRR, 144 people are under banning orders,
restricting their movements and prohibiting them from attending gatherings.
Mamphela Ramphele is detained under Section 10 of the Internal Security Act
21 December: The Saso Nine trial ends with the conviction of all defendants, with
six sentenced to six year terms and three to five year terms on Robben Island.
29 December: The Minister of Bantu Education announces moves towards the
introduction of free and compulsory education for blacks. This is the fifth concession
to black demands since the Soweto riots of 16 June 1976. It has also reversed the
Afrikaans ruling in schools, suspended the ‘homeland citizenship’ requirement for
blacks leasing houses in townships, introduced a home ownership scheme and
agrees in principle to give increased powers to Bantu Councils in black areas.
Police announce the release of the last of the 113 detainees held under Section 10
(preventive detention) of the Internal Security Act. Restriction orders are placed on
six of those released, including Winnie Mandela.
1977
1 January: Four senior members of the Soweto Students’ Representative Council
(SSRC) are arrested.
10 February: The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference decides to
uphold the rights of conscientious objectors, expresses its perturbation over
reports of police brutality and deaths in detention, calls for an investigation and
protests against the provision of legal indemnity for the police. At the close of their
conference, a twenty-one point action programme is issued for guidance in future
stances to be taken.
11 February, In a ‘Declaration of Commitment’ the Bishops’ Conference states it will
promote Black Consciousness in solidarity with all those who work for the legitimate
aspirations of oppressed people.
15 February, Between March 1976 and 15 February 1977, a total of eighteen
black people have died while in police custody, the causes of death being officially
described as suicide, accident or natural causes.
21 March, Steven Biko, former Saso leader, released on 30 November 1976 after
temporary detention under security laws, is re-arrested.
27 April, Police confront some 10,000 students demonstrating against rent
increases in Soweto and violence ensues. The offices of the Urban Bantu Council in
Soweto are attacked. The government later suspends rent increases for one month,
pending investigation of alternative financing.
11 May, According to a report by the South African Institute of Race Relations,
a total of 617 black persons, of whom it names 558, are known to have died by
violence since June 1976 in the townships, including at least eighty five children
and youths, of whom fifty three have been shot.
21 May - 22 May, The United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Andrew
Young, pays a two-day visit to South Africa at the invitation of Harry Oppenheimer.
He meets Soweto student leaders, black and white community leaders, newspaper
editors and addresses a business dinner. He maintains economic pressure can
bring about radical changes.
11 June, It is announced that Security Police have arrested the leader of the
Soweto Students’ Representative Council (SSRC), Dan S. Montsitsi in connection
with plans to commemorate the Soweto uprisings. Four white students are also
arrested.
23 June, Violence erupts in Soweto again and at least 146 arrests are made by the
police.
26 July, The ‘Committee of 10’ formed by prominent Soweto residents, and issues
a programme for the election of a new community board to have total autonomy
in Soweto, including powers to levy taxes and to control education, the police and
local elections. The Minister of Justice rejects this and the government remains
committed to community councils with limited powers, control being retained by the
Bantu Administration Board.
3 August, Dr Motlana, on behalf of the ‘Committee of 10’ repeats the call for non-
ethnic elections for an autonomous Soweto city council.
12 September, Steve Biko dies in detention, the 10th in a year, in Pretoria after
being tortured and beaten by security police. Magistrate Prins delivered the
following verdict:
a) The identity of the deceased is Stephen Bantu Biko, Black man, approximately
30 years old;
b) Date of death: 12 September 1977;
c) Cause or likely cause of death: Head injury with associated extensive brain
injury, followed by contusion of the blood circulation, disseminated intravascular
coagulation as well as renal failure with uraemia. The head injury was probably
sustained during the deceased was involved in a scuffle with members of the
Security Branch of the South African Police at Port Elizabeth.
Messages of concern come from, among others, Cyrus Vance US Secretary of
State and Dr. Kurt Waldheim, the United Nations Secretary-General.
Baleka Kgositsile goes to Tanzania and becomes the first secretary of the regional
Women’s Section of the ANC.
Winnie Mandela is banished to Brandfort in the Orange Free State.
Mamphela Ramphele is banished to rural Northern Transvaal where she forms the
Isutheng Community Health Programme.
25 September, Steven Biko’s funeral in King William’s Town is attended by some
15,000 people. Twelve Western diplomats are present, including the American
Ambassador.
16 October: A total of 128 members of the United States Congress, from both the
Democratic and Republican parties send a written request to the South African
Ambassador in Washington urging the government to invite an appropriate
international body to examine South Africa’s laws and practices relating to detention
and to make recommendations, with special reference to the death of Steve Biko.
19 October,Following a Cabinet decision on 18 October, the government, by
proclamation under the Internal Security Act, declared 18 organisations unlawful,
arrested some 70 leading Africans, placed a number of people in restriction
(inc Donal Woods) and closed down the daily newspaper ’The World’ and its
associated ’Weekend World’. The South African Police (SAP) jail dozens of
government opponents not previously detained, including The World editor
Percy Qoboza. Banning orders are issued to Beyers Naudé and Donald Woods,
two prominent Whites who had publicly supported Steve Biko and the Black
Consciousness Movement (BCM). Justice Minister, Jimmy Kruger places bans on
all movements affiliated with the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM). Along
with South African Students’ Organisation (SASO) and Black People’s Convention
(BPC) the following organisations are included in the bannings: AASECA, the
Black Parents Association, the Black Women’s Federation, the Border Youth
Organisation, the Christian Institute of Southern Africa (a multi-racial organisation
of anti-apartheid churchmen), the Eastern Province Youth Organisation, the
Medupe Writers’ Association, the Natal Youth Organisation, the Transvaal Youth
Organisation, the Union of Black Journalists, and the Western Cape Youth
Organisation. Person’s arrested included 8 members of the Soweto ’Committee of
10’. The actions provoke worldwide shock and protest.
Banning orders are issued to Beyers Naudé and Donald Woods.
Emergency powers are proclaimed by the government of Venda.
The United States declares that the Carter Administration will be re-examining its
relations with the South African government.
24 October, As the United Nations Security Council debate on South Africa opens
in New York, a major diplomatic effort begins to deal with South Africa’s severe
treatment of its critics and with African demands for mandatory United Nations
sanctions.
The Minister of Justice, Police and Prisons receives a report of a police
investigation into Steve Biko’s death and a post-mortem report submitted to the
Attorney General of the Transvaal and signed by Professor Johan Loubser, Chief
State Pathologist, by Professor W Simpson (University of Pretoria) and by Jonathan
Gluckman (pathologist appointed by the Biko family) whose findings are unanimous.
Death has been caused by extensive brain damage. Biko sustained at least a
dozen injuries between eight days and twelve hours of his death.
26 October: The Attorney General of the Transvaal, Jacobus E Nothling, announces
that an inquest into Biko’s death will be held, but that he would not institute criminal
proceedings. On 28 October the Attorney General of the Eastern Cape, Carel van
der Walt, also declines to institute criminal proceedings.
14 November, The Chairman of the Olympic Games organising committee
announces that Rhodesia and South Africa will be excluded from the 1980 Moscow
Olympics.
The inquest into the death of Steve Biko opens in Pretoria. Evidence given
concerning the autopsy report is widely reported both locally and overseas.
21 November, A Soweto Action Committee is formed to back the plan for the future
of Soweto proposed by the ‘Committee of 10’ most of whose members are in
detention.
1 December, Counsel for Steve Biko’s family, Sydney Kentridge, makes his final
submission calling for a verdict that Steve Biko died as the result of a criminal
assault on him by one or more of the eight members of the Security Police in whose
custody he was on 6 and 7 September. During his four hour address Kentridge
reserves his most serious criticism for two Security Police officers, Colonel Piet
Goosen and Major Harold Snyman and two doctors who examined Steve Biko, Dr
Ivor Lang and Dr Benjamin Tucker.
2 December, The fifteen-day inquest into the death of Steve Biko ends with a
three-minute finding by the presiding magistrate, Martinus Prins, who rules that
no one can be found criminally responsible for his death in detention. The verdict
causes deep concern within South Africa and a storm of protest overseas. Shock is
expressed by the United States Secretary of State and consternation by the United
Nations Secretary-General.
Two members of Steve Biko’s family, as well as eight other blacks, some of them
friends of the Biko family, are detained by police in a pre-dawn raid in Soweto.
3 December, The record of the Biko inquest will now go to the Attorney General of
Transvaal who can decide whether there should be any further investigation or any
other action taken.
8 December, Sir David Napley, President of the Law Society of England (who
attended the Biko inquest as an independent observer at the invitation of the
Association of Law Societies of South Africa) issues a twenty-five page report
on the inquest in which he severely criticises police procedure, evidence and
investigation (‘perfuctory in the extreme’). Regarding the magistrate’s findings he is
in accord, but adds I do not, however, apprehend that it would have been irregular
for the Magistrate to have found that the death was caused by one or more of a
group of persons without specifying such persons with particularity’.
6 January, Donald Woods, banned editor of the Daily Dispatch (East London)
reaches Britain with his family, having fled South Africa via Lesotho and Botswana.
The pro-government Afrikaans press launches a virulent campaign against him: the
British and American press in contrast give wide and sympathetic coverage to the
story of his escape.
22 January, At a meeting of the newly organised Soweto Students’ League, a
decision is taken to continue the students’ boycott of State schools, to call for
a national conference to launch a new education system and to take no part in
elections to the Soweto Community Council.
26 January, Amnesty International’s detailed report on human rights violations in
South Africa is banned. It presents comprehensive documentation on deaths in
detention, detention without trial, treatment of convicted political prisoners, bannings
and banishment.
At the request of the African delegates, Donald Woods addresses the United
Nations Security Council and urges member states to pursue a policy of
disengagement from South Africa.
2 February, The Attorney-General of the Eastern Cape states that he will not
prosecute any police involved in the arrest and detention of Black Consciousness
leader Steve Biko.
 3 February, Pik Botha announces that the Biko affair had done untold damage to
SA’s reputation
27 February, Robert M Sobukwe, founder of the Pan Africanist Congress, dies of
cancer at the age of 53 and is buried in his home town, Graaff Reinet.
28 February, The Minister of Justice announces that detainees held under
security laws will soon he allowed to have monthly visits from doctors and legal
representatives.
10 March, Percy Qoboza, editor of the banned newspaper, The World, is released
from detention, together with nine other black leaders seized in security raids in
October 1976.
21 March, It is reported that about 15,000 students have returned to secondary
schools in Soweto and that thirty-two of the forty state-run schools in the townships
will re-open by the beginning of April.
23 March Three more detainees are released: the Chairman of the ‘Committee of,
Dr. N. Motlana, a member of the Committee, L. Mosala, and Soweto Journalist,
Aggrey Klaaste.
12 April, The Black Consciousness Movement of Azania (BCMA) is formed in
London, UK.
late AprilThe Azanian People’s Organisation (Azapo) is formed at an inaugural
conference at Roodepoort, near Johannesburg. It is open to Blacks, Coloureds and
Indians, but closed to Whites. It adopts the slogan of the banned Black People’s
Convention: ‘One Azania, one People’ and will oppose all institutions created by the
government, from homelands to Community Councils.
4 May, Azapo’s two principal leaders, I. Mkhabela and L. Mabasa are arrested in
Soweto. Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu protests and queries why the authorities
are so unwilling to listen to the voices of authentic black leaders.
12 September, On the eve of the first anniversary of the death of Steve Biko, police
arrest sixteen people including Biko’s brother, his sister and her husband and close
friends of the family. No reason is given but police say the arrests are preventive
measures covered by the 1977 Internal Security Act.
25 September, The trial begins of eleven Soweto students charged under the
Terrorism Act. The 56-page indictment alleges that as officers, members or
supporters of the now banned Soweto Students’ Representative Council (SSRC),
they conspired to commit sedition and terrorism between May 1976 and October
1977.
20 November, The Bureau of State Security (BOSS) becomes a full portfolio of
National Security under the Prime Minister who is now Prime Minister and Minister
of Defence and of National Security.
1979
Sisulu’s son Zwelakhe sentenced to 9 months imprisonment in Thami Mkhanazi
 trial.
African trade unions are for the first time recognised under the Industrial Relations
Act.
7 February, Figures released by the South African Institute of Race Relations
indicate a fall of 20 percent in political trials in 1978, compared with 1977.
Authorities are showing increasing recourse to preventive detention rather than
administrative banning of opponents.
9 April, The Botswana government is building a camp to house over 5,000 student
refugees from South Africa at Molepolole, thirty-five km. west of Gaborone. This will
be a country settlement and not a training camp.
11 May, Eleven Soweto school pupil leaders are convicted of sedition and
sentenced in Johannesburg to terms of imprisonment, most of which are
suspended, since the accused have already been held for long periods. The
charges arise from the June 1976 demonstrations.
29 July, The government is reported to have paid the family of the Black
Consciousness leader, Steve Biko, R65,000 in settlement of claims for his death
in custody in 1977. The Minister of Police, Louis le Grange, says the state is not
admitting liability and the file on the Biko affair has now been closed.
30 September, Azapo elects new leaders at its first Congress, near Johannesburg.
The 200 delegates choose as leader Curtis Nkondo, a former Soweto teacher who
resigned in protest against the separate school system for blacks. Azapo declares
itself opposed to all institutions created by the government and to the principle of
ethnically-based institutions and advocates the creation of a single Parliamentary
state.
November The Azanian Students Organisation (AZASO) is formed.
24 December, The Security Police detains the President and six Executive
Members of the recently formed Congress of South African Students (Cosas).
1980
March, A campaign is launched for the release of Nelson Mandela. Organisations
supporting the campaign include the Soweto ‘Committee of, Inkatha, Azapo, the
Labour Party, the Natal Indian Congress and the South African Council of Churches
(SACC).
April, The London-based Black Consciousness Movement of South Africa changes
its name to the Black Consciousness Movement of Azania.
21 April, The Coloured schools boycott is joined by pupils at a number of Indian
schools in Pretoria and Natal. Support is also pledged by Black Consciousness
groups.
1983
11 June - 12 June, The National Forum, representing 170 black organisations,
holds its first Conference at Hammanskraal near Pretoria. Delegates from political,
 religious, student and trade union movements unanimously adopt a manifesto
identifying racial capitalism as the real enemy and pledging to establish a Socialist
republic. Azapo predominates: absent are movements subscribing to the Freedom
Charter adopted by the ANC and its allies.
1984
10 December, Three leaders of the anti-apartheid United Democratic Front (UDF)
and two Azapo officials are freed from jail, the UDF and Azapo report. South Africa
announced the withdrawal of detention orders against 14 leading opponents of its
racial discrimination policies but immediately charges six of them with treason.
1985
30 January, The South African Medical and Postal Council is ordered to hold an
inquiry into the conduct of doctors that treated the Black Consciousness leader,
Steve Biko, who died at the hands of the security police in 1977.
5 July, Two white medical doctors are found guilty of misconduct by the Medical
Council in the 1977 death of Black Consciousness leader, Steve Biko.
October, Dr. Benjamin Tucker is struck off the roll for disgraceful conduct over the
death in detention of Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko in September.
31 December, Government extends orders, in force since March, prohibiting
anti-government groups from holding meetings, for another six months. Initially,
they affected 29 organisations in 18 districts. In June they were extended to 64
organisations and 30 districts. Now 10 more groups linked to UDF and Azapo are
added.
Clashes occur between supporters of the UDF, Azapo and Inkatha throughout
the year. A State of Emergency comes into force. Cosas is banned. The Soweto
Parents Crisis Committee (SPCC) is formed to address the education crisis.
1988
Azapo and the Azanian Youth Organisation (Azayo) are banned. Black
Consciousness members leave the country and others join the African National
Congress (ANC) in exile, where they undergo military training in several countries,
many in the Soviet Union.
1989
December, An all-inclusive black political conference is held with the main groups
being the Mass Democratic Movement and the Black Consciousness Movement.
The Conference adopts the Harare Declaration which sets out pre-conditions for
negotiations and outlines a new constitutional future.
1990
2 February, Bans on all political organisations are lifted.
1991
The Azanian Student Convention (AZASCO) is launched at the Medical University
of South Africa (MEDUNSA), Pretoria.
1994
The African National Congress (ANC) and Azapo agree on a task force to look at
the issue of land possession and Black empowerment.
January, Azapo launches an anti-election campaign as the party feels the ideology
of Black Consciouness has not been addressed.
9 October, The Black Consciousness Movement of Azania merges with Azapo.
BCMA chairman Mosibudi Mangena is elected president of Azapo at its eleventh
national congress.
1997
28 January, The Truth and Reconciliation Commission confirms newspaper reports
that five former security police officers confessed to the 1977 murder of Black
Consciousness leader Steve Biko, and have made a formal amnesty application.
1998
Azapo and Tiro’s family organise the exhumation of Tiro’s remains and returned to
his birtchplace, Dinokana, for reburial
21 March, A newly formed party claiming to be the legitimate custodian of Black
Consciousness, the Socialist Party of Azania is formed. Sopa is formed by a
breakaway group from Azapo.
2000
Mamphela Rampele joins the World Bank in Washington as managing director
responsible for human development.
2003
1 February, “On the occasion of the commemoration of the life of Onkgopotse
Abraham Tiro” by Bokwe Mafuna in Meadowlands, Soweto.
2009
April 22, Azapo participates in the 2009 election for seats in the National Assemble
and the Provincial Legislatures. It gets one seat in the National Assembly.

‘The Black Consciousness Movement’/Timeline from South African History Online,

www.sahistory.org.za

2. The Black Consciousness Movement

The emergence of the Black Consciousness movement that swept across the country
in the 1970s can best be explained in the context of the events from 1960 onwards.
After the Sharpeville massacrein 1960, the National Party (NP) government, which was
formed in 1947, intensified its repression to curb widespread civil unrest. It did this by
passing harsher laws, extending its use of torture, imprisonment and detentions without
trial.
By the late 1960s, the government had jailed, banned or exiled the majority of the
Liberation Movement’s leaders. In response to this, an intensified wave of tyranny, and
a new set of organisations emerged. These organisations filled the vacuum created
by the government’s suppression of the African National Congress (ANC) and the
Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960. United loosely
around a set of ideas described as “Black Consciousness,” these organisations helped
to educate and organise Black people, particularly the youth. In fact, the eruption of the
Black Consciousness Movement signalled an end to the quiescence that followed the
banning of the black political movements.

The BCM urged a defiant rejection of apartheid, especially among Black workers and
the youth. TheSouth African Students Organisation (SASO) - an arm of the movement
- was founded by Black students who refused to join NUSAS, another student led
organization. At the same time, Black workers began to organise trade unions in
defiance of anti-strike laws. In 1973, there were strikes throughout the nation, in
cities like Durban. The collapse of Portuguese colonialism and the victories of the
Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) in Mozambique, and the Popular Movement
for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in Angola, stimulated further activity against
apartheid. This culminated in the Soweto Uprising of 1976.

In 1976, student protests against Bantu education in Soweto, the Johannesburg

informal settlement reserved for Africans, led to a two-year uprising that spread to
Black townships across the country. The protests encompassed all Black grievances
against the apartheid system, and in that period police reportedly killed many protesters,
including schoolchildren. Workers then mobilised to protest police killings of innocent
demonstrators.

In the following year, boycotts and unrest among students and teachers grew
after Steve Biko, a leader of SASO, died in a Pretoria detention cell. He had been
detained by the police under the Terrorism Act, and after the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission (TRC) in the 1990s, it was revealed that he was tortured and killed by
police. Within a month of Biko’s death, the government had detained scores of people
and banned 18 Black Consciousness organizations, as well as two newspapers with a
wide Black readership.

The Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa is synonymous with its founder,
Biko. From the beginning of Biko’s political life until his death, he remains one of the
indisputable icons of the Black struggle against apartheid. As leader of the movement,
he instilled courage among the masses to fight an unjust system under the banner of
Black Consciousness. Defining Black Consciousness is no mean task. However, a
broad understanding of the concept can be made from Biko’s speeches and writings,
including those of his close friends and other writers.

Defining Black Consciousness

The ideology of Black Consciousness, which informed Biko and his colleagues’
approach, represented a deeper strand of Africanism within African nationalism. This
ideology had a long history which dates back to the 1880s, when it was borrowed from
foreign writers such as Frantz Fanon, whose banned book about the Algerian war
against French settlers was widely read. Fanon stated that:

“...the native had become psychologically incapacitated, no longer capable of action.

The native detested white society, but was envious of it. Realising that his own skin
prevented him from ever attaining privilege, the native despised his own blackness.”

Therefore, it has been argued that “The most potent weapon in the hands of the
oppressor is the mind of the oppressed." To liberate themselves, Black people had
to redefine their values, self-image, and entire outlook. It is also true that Americans
contributed to the style and rhetoric of Black Consciousness. The very term “black”
came from the United States and referred to people previously known as Africans,
Indians or Coloureds. Black Americans offered the idea of non-white unity against their
oppressors. However, the phrase non-white defined Blacks in negative terms.

Ideas about Black unity and emancipation are deeply rooted in the struggle Biko
launched against apartheid since the 1960s. It should be emphasised that in South
Africa, both the rhetoric and philosophy of Black Consciousness contradicted the
fundamental principles of grand apartheid. In short, apartheid was designed not only
to separate Whites from Blacks but also to foster black parochialism by segregating
Blacks into ethnic and linguistic groups. Such a system was challenged by Biko,
who then spearheaded a process that led to the formation of organisations that were
representative of Black political interests and aspirations. Black Consciousness has
therefore been defined by Biko as:

“the realization by the Black man of the need to rally together with his brothers around
the cause of their oppression – 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. It seeks
to demonstrate the lie that black is an aberration from the normal which is white. It is a
manifestation of a new realization that by seeking to run away from themselves and to
emulate the white man, blacks are insulting the intelligence of whoever created them
black. Black consciousness therefore takes cognizance of the deliberateness of God’s
plan in creating black people black. It seeks to infuse the black community with a new-
found pride in themselves, their efforts, their value systems, their culture, their religion
and their outlook to life.”

Black Consciousness instilled in Africans a culture of revolt that was based on a number
of fundamental ideas. For instance, Black South Africans believed in God, culture,
community and family, and were against a state that tried to weaken these elements
of society. Similarly to political organisations, the renaissance of black culture can be
traced back to the early 1970s, and the ideas of the BCM.

Steve Biko diagnosed the problem of oppression in South Africa as a problem of

culture. This is because Whites described African culture in derogatory terms, and
Black South Africans were ashamed of their history, and their 'primitive' religion and art.
Blacks were ashamed of their skin colour, and it is believed that some Black women
adapted themselves to wigs with long European hair to hide their African hair. This
relentless denigration of black African culture created a sense of inferiority that rendered
Black South Africans incapable of action and revolt. Biko realised that political revolution
would have to be preceded by a revolution in how Blacks saw their past and culture –
their very blackness. He had often spoken about the unique qualities of African culture,
and the destructive influence of western culture.

Biko wrote that:

“Black Consciousness seeks to show the black people the value of their own standards
and outlook. It urges black people to judge themselves according to these standards
and not to be fooled by white society who [sic] have white-washed themselves and
made white standards the yardstick by which even black people judge each other.”

Therefore, to put it briefly, Black Consciousness refers to the ideas and action which
emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with the aim of uniting Black people to
oppose apartheid and white supremacy.

The Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa

The landscape of Black political activity in the 1960s was different that of the previous
decade. The apartheid government had banished the Black resistance movements, in
particular the ANC and the PAC. Black leaders, who were not imprisoned by the state,
fled into exile. A barrage of restrictive legislation effectively silenced Black opposition
through bannings, arrests, and the imprisonment of leaders. South Africa's economy
grew and benefited White South Africans. For Black South Africans, however, the
suffering continued.

Ironically, the seeds of Black resistance in the 1960s could be found at the ‘bush
campuses’, like those at the University of the North and Zululand University. These
institutions, created under the Extension of the University Education Act, Act 45 of 1959,
became the breeding ground of Black resistance that was to become a force in the
1970s. Influenced by the American Black Power movement, the likes of Malcolm X, and
closer to home by Frantz Fanon, Kenneth Kaunda, Julius Nyere and Kwame Nkrumah,
a new framework of student thinking emerged. In South Africa, it was the late Anthony
Lembede's Africanism that was a crucial influence in these universities.

Biko’s ideas became the major rallying point behind a pressure group that became
known in South Africa as the BCM. From 17 years of age, up until his death on 12
September 1977, Biko had an illustrious political career spanning about 14 years. He
came into the political limelight in 1963, the year that witnessed a rise in the Poqo-led
unrest in his home area. Poqo was the armed wing of the PAC, similar to the armed
wing of the ANC, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK, or “Spear of the Nation”).

Biko had just entered Lovedale College when his brother was arrested and jailed
on suspicion of outlawed Poqo activity. He was interrogated by the police and
subsequently expelled. This marked the beginning of Biko’s resentment against white
authority. In 1964, he went to Marianhill in Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal) and attended a
private Roman Catholic school, Saint Francis College. Although he found meaning in
Christian principles, Biko, who was an articulate young man, resented the influence of
whites thought on determining an African’s future.

As an advocate of the Black Consciousness (BC) philosophy - together with other

literate Africans residing in the major urban centres - Biko developed into a highly
respected intellectual in the 1960s. Biko began his search for self-identity, and hoped
to build up the pride of Black culture - a culture that was scornfully viewed by the settler
regime. Biko and his student colleagues had been receptive to the political ideas
expressed by many Black intellectuals, and learned to use the emotional power of the
message of Black Consciousness.

As a result, these ideas and slogans filtered down to a much broader group of socially
underprivileged people, who were angry and impatient for meaningful action. This
restructured consciousness emerged among students, beginning with those at
Fort Hare and later the Durban Medical School (Natal University). These students
constituted the new African petty bourgeoisie class.

The formation of SASO and the Black People's Convention

Black university students had tried for many years to make progress through the
multiracial and liberal National Union of South African Students (NUSAS). In particular,
NUSAS was outspoken in its criticism of government actions, especially at English-
speaking universities where its membership was strong. Several young liberal white
leaders of the organisation empathised with the Black cause, and tried to protect
politically active Black students from government counter-action by speaking out for
them.

However, Biko felt that even within anti-government politics, Blacks still did not play
as prominent a role as Whites. Therefore, dissatisfaction with the system arose. In
the period 1967-68, Biko, now a medical student at Natal University, was one of the
students who began to analyse and criticise the unhealthy political situation in the
country. He instantaneously became the hero of millions of Africans who rejected
apartheid.

At Wentworth, Natal University’s medical school for Blacks, Biko was elected to
the Student’s Representative Council (SRC), and in 1967, attended a conference
of students which was critical of the government. Primarily because NUSAS was
dominated by whites, Rhodes University, the conference host, refused to allow mixed-
race accommodation or eating facilities. Biko reacted angrily to the incident, and slated
the incomplete integration of student politics under the existing system, and dismissed
talk of liberalism as an empty gesture by Whites who really wished to maintain the
status quo and keep Blacks as second-rate citizens.

The BCM that Biko founded rejected the notion that whites could play a role in the
liberation of Blacks. “The main thing was to get black people to articulate their own
struggle and reject the white liberal establishment from prescribing to people,” said
Barney Pityana (Biko’s friend). Biko and his colleagues felt Blacks needed to learn to
speak for themselves.

In fact, as Pityana recalled, for white students, “NUSAS was a nice friendly club,
another game you played while at university. Then you grew out of it,” but for Biko and
other black students, NUSAS was not militant enough. Other liberal organisations like
some churches were not open to blacks either. For example, at a non-racial church
conference, which Biko attended, white participants discouraged blacks from defying
restrictions of the Group Areas Act, which limited Blacks to 72 hours in a white area.
This discouragement underlined the extent to which Black South Africans were isolated,
even from the church.

At the University Christian Movement (UCM) meeting held in Stutterheim in 1968,

young people were enthusiastically supportive of Biko’s idea for an exclusively all-
Black movement. In 1969, African students launched a Blacks-only student union, the
South African Students’ Organisation (SASO) to which Biko was elected president. The
union was formed at a meeting at the University of the North near Pietersburg (now
Polokwane). However, the students of the University of Natal played the leading role in
its formation.

SASO made clear its common allegiance to the philosophy of Black Consciousness.
In 1971, to encourage adult participation and promote their broad objectives, SASO
leaders established an adult wing (umbrella organisation) of their organisation, the
Black People’s Convention (BPC). Through these groups, Black Consciousness
became part of a shared frame of reference.

In his new position, Biko was scathingly critical of white liberals who “could skilfully
extract what [suited] them from the exclusive pool of white privileges.” He was also
resentful of the fact that Blacks found themselves in a situation where the principles of
liberty, equality, fraternity, rule of law and civil liberties were secondary to those that
informed the struggle for fundamental freedoms in South Africa.

The whole ideology of liberalism was seriously questioned and openly rejected by
SASO with Biko as its main mouthpiece. With ever-growing radicalism, he explained
why he was against integration when he said, “I am against the fact that a settler
minority should impose an entire system of values on an indigenous people.”

South Africa’s Black communities received these ideas with mixed feelings. Shocked
White liberals, with their sincerity and deep convictions in question, felt they had
become easy scapegoats for another racist organisation. The idea that Black people
might determine their own destiny, as well as develop a new Africanism with deep
roots in the Black Consciousness Movement, swept across Black campuses. This
strongly influenced those who had experienced the frustrations of the system of Bantu
Education, and those who detested feelings of inferiority to White people.

In a short time, SASO became identified with Black Power and African humanism.
This was reinforced by ideas emanating from Black America and Africa. In particular,
Biko preached that racial polarisation of society into hostile camps was a preliminary
to race conflict, and a strategy for change. He was convinced that, in order to prevent
Blacks from sinking into apathetic acceptance of the system of separate development,
continuous agitation had to take place to shake them up.

At the 1972 SASO conference, hostility towards Black leaders from institutions of
apartheid emerged, resulting in the expulsion of the president of the adult wing of SASO
(BPC), Themba Sono. Sono was expelled after giving a presidential address at the
SASO annual conference, calling for a pragmatic approach and careful collaboration
with White liberals, and for “Bantustan” leaders to advance the objectives of the
organisation and the liberation struggle. Biko described Sono’s speech as “very
dangerous”.

In fact, Sono had Chief Gatsha Buthelezi in mind when he pleaded for some sort of
co-operation with selected leaders, and he said he was a “force you cannot ignore.”
Nevertheless, Biko could not be persuaded to ally with a leader that he thought
represented the Black Face of Apartheid, because Buthelezi had accepted a leadership
position in a 'white-made homeland'.

The Black Face of Apartheid

Biko was critical of the homeland (Bantustan) policy. At the height of his influence,
between 1963 and 1976, Steve Biko called the homelands “the greatest single fraud
ever invented by white politicians”. He made it clear that Blacks who said homelands
could be exploited to wring concessions from whites 'have already sold their souls to the
white man'.

Biko observed that Transkei president Kaiser Matanzima and Chief Gatsha M Buthelezi
of KwaZulu- Natal:

“...are perhaps more than anybody else acutely aware of the limitations surrounding
them. It may also be true that they are extremely dedicated to the upliftment of black
people and perhaps to their liberation. Many times they have manifested a fighting spirit
characterising true courage and determination.”

Nonetheless, Biko condemned these leaders both for accepting leadership of the white-
made homelands and for unknowingly helping the apartheid government consolidate
its policy of separate territorial development. In an article written under his pseudonym
Frank Talk, Biko said, 'If you want to fight your enemy you do not accept from him the
unloaded of his two guns and then challenge him to a duel.”

Therefore, Biko believed that Whites were using Buthelezi, not the other way round:

“For white South Africa, a man like Buthelezi ...solves so many conscience
problems ...The combination of Buthelezi and the white press [also] make up the finest
ambassadors that South Africa has ever had ...When you use Bantustan platforms to
attack what you do not like you epitomize the kind of militant black leader who in South
Africa is freely allowed to speak and oppose the system. You exonerate the country
from the blame that it is a police state.”

An increasing number of Biko’s supporters agreed. In 1978 in Graaff Reinet, at PAC

leader Robert Sobukwe's funeral, Buthelezi was jeered at and stoned by young Black
Consciousness followers.Desmond Tutu advised the chief to leave. In the haste to
usher the humiliated chief to safety, one of his bodyguards shot and wounded three
of the mourners. The incident signalled a split between Buthelezi and the ANC, as the
latter did not want to alienate the young Black Consciousness follower’s that they were
recruiting.

Buthelezi fell into further conflict with his former allies in the Congress movement after
clashes between his Inkatha supporters and Black students. In May 1980, secondary-
school students boycotting classes in KwaZulu were attacked by a mob armed with
spears and assegais. At the University of Zululand at Ngoye, the national student
organisation, AZASO, was banned from the campus, not by the Pretoria government,
but by the KwaZulu homeland government.

In October 1983, students denounced a visit to the campus by Buthelezi. As a result,

Inkatha impis – soldiers wielding spears and clubs – were bussed in from all over the
province. Students entering the campus were searched, but the impis were permitted to
pass through the checkpoints with their weapons. The impis then attacked the students.
Four students were killed and more than 100 others stabbed. Buthelezi later justified the
incident by saying the Inkatha followers were provoked and said they “did no more than
defend my honour and the honour of His Majesty the King.” The gulf between Buthelezi
and other Black leaders increased.

Despite the fact that some of the incidents took place after Biko’s death, his supporters
upheld his philosophy and continued to denounce the homeland policy for its negativity
and its failure to recognise the growing stature of Black Consciousness. In fact, Biko
saw all moderates working within the system as collaborators with the apartheid
government.

With the expulsion of the moderate and pragmatic Themba Sono, this radical ideology
was entrenched. Sono’s message and expulsion came at a time when SASO was
beginning to take a more radical approach against apartheid. SASO then became
overtly confrontational with the state. Older and more cautious political leaders feared
that open militancy would undermine the youth’s future education.

Biko and the young leaders stressed that the liberation of Black people was first a
psychological struggle against the portrayal of a Black man as an inferior person,
lacking the good qualities that made a White person superior. As a result, culture took
centre stage in the struggle. Biko taught Black people to be proud of their culture and
personal appearance. The BC leaders discouraged the use of whitening skin lotions and
hair products to straighten one’s hair because, in their view, these were equivalent to
accepting White as superior to Black.
The second phase of the struggle focused on participating in national campaigns,
backed by financial resources and much needed mobility to dismantle apartheid
structures. As a result the Black People’s Convention was launched in 1971. Almost
immediately, it was under police surveillance. Eight Black consciousness leaders were
banned in 1973, and publication of BPC material became difficult.

However, by the end of the 1973, 41 branches were said to exist. Black churchmen
were becoming increasingly politicised, and Black Consciousness became more
outspoken and defiant of white authority. Schools also became politicised and this
resulted in expulsions and attacks on Black education. Boycotts and school closures
followed as Black-White confrontation began to yield the racial polarisation needed to
bring about change. At Black schools, Biko and his student leaders became heroes, and
high school youth organisations became the nurseries for revolt.

The government reacted by systematically depriving SASO of its leaders. As indicated

earlier, in 1973 a number of banning orders were issued. Biko, Pityana and other
SASO and BPC leaders were detained under the Terrorism Act, and the following year
nine leaders of SASO and the BPC were charged for enticing disorder. The accused
used the seventeen-month trial to their advantage, as a platform to state the case
of Black Consciousness. They were found guilty, and sentenced to various terms of
imprisonment for revolutionary conspiracy. However, they were later acquitted.

Their convictions strengthened the Black Consciousness Movement, and the repression
instituted under the Terrorism Act caused Blacks to lose sympathy with moderate
revolutionary policies, and lead to more militancy and demands for freedom. In June
1976, there were violent clashes between high school students and police, which
marked the beginning of widespread urban unrest.

Black Consciousness and 16 June – The birth of a new generation

The Black Consciousness philosophy gained most of its support in the secondary
schools and universities. The role played by the Black Consciousness Movement
(BCM) in the Soweto revolt is demonstrated by the students' demand for an educational
system that was representative of Africa and Africans. Most student leaders raised the
concern that the current educational system was Euro-centric, and undermined African
achievement.

The Africanist revival of African history that centred around themes like
African ‘civilisations' and Black people’s ‘heroic achievements', made a deep impression
on many university and high school students. As early as the late 1960s, university
students, who were to become student leaders in the 1970s, were already questioning
the domination of White liberal politics in the freedom struggle.

The imposition of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction came at an unstable time, as

the 'centre of gravity' in black student politics had shifted dramatically in the mid-1970s.
The emerging Black Consciousness philosophy was transforming the way young Black
people thought, and it boosted their self esteem. The introduction of Afrikaans frustrated
this change. According to Biko, the difficulty of coping with a foreign language in schools
caused 'an inferiority complex.' He added that, the language problem “inculcates in
many black students a sense of inadequacy. You tend to think that it is not just a matter
of language. You tend to tie it up with intelligence.”

For this generation of Black students, Afrikaans was the language of the police and their
employers, and an instrument for giving orders. They believed that the imposition of
Afrikaans was designed to train them for servitude. Afrikaans was also, as one student
put it, 'a terrible academic pain'. “The kids were failing exams in thousands,” recalled a
black journalist. This was because for many years Maths, Science and other subjects
were taught in English. The sudden shift to Afrikaans gave rise to difficulties in the
student's understanding of jargon and technical terms.

According to Mono Badela (interviewed by Mufson in January 1988), “...[the students]

saw Afrikaans as a means of suppression...suppressing them from advancing
educationally.” It was due to these problems that, at the end of May 1976, student
leaders in Soweto travelled secretively from school to school to rally fellow students to
protest against Afrikaans. Student grievances against the use of an unfamiliar language
eventually culminated in the Soweto riots of 16 June 1976.

The impact of SASO on schools led to the formation of the South African Students
Movement (SASM). Although SASM was an autonomous group, it grew out of the BC.
It seems that in a number of schools, teachers were sympathetic and supportive of
the student movement because it had included an educational support mechanism to
assist students with exam preparations and university studies. As a result, it was able
to operate from school classrooms to organise and educate scholars about the BC
philosophy.

Out of SASM, another new and autonomous body emerged. This was the Soweto
Student Representative Council (SSRC) and it was to play a decisive role in the
organisation of the 16 June riots. The growth of the SSRC was noticeable within a
short period of time. By the end of 1976, its reputation was acknowledged by the
daily newspaper The Star in its editorial, which urged the government to accept their
demands.
The editorial stated that:

“Its [SSRC demands] essentially a plea for peace pegged on two conditions – that all
students held in detention without trial are released and that “police harassment” of
schools should end ...the SSRC seems to us a reasonable starting point for some sort
of township détente ...the SSRC may not speak for all the township's youth, but it is the
only visible and legal organ of a key sector of black opinion.”

It appears that the inspiration for the youngsters did not come from the ANC and PAC
movements in exile. Mpho Mashinini, who was sixteen at the time of the student revolt,
recalled thinking, “We were the real struggle [not the ANC under Oliver Tambo, the real
heroes. [Youths] viewed the ANC as old and useless and saw themselves as the new
fire.”

That fire began with Black Consciousness and its leading proponent, Biko. Biko had
diagnosed why Black South Africans were too weak to free themselves years after
most of Africa had become independent of the colonial powers. That weakness had
little to do with the force of arms, he said, and everything to do with the power of
the mind. “Material want is bad enough, but coupled with spiritual poverty it kills,” he
wrote. “And this latter effect is probably the one that creates mountains of obstacles in
the normal course of emancipation of the black people.”

On 13 June 1976 the South African Students Movement (SASM) Action Committee
resolved to organise a peaceful protest march against the introduction of Afrikaans as
a medium of instruction. The 16 June riots demonstrated the impact of BC, and marked
its emergence as a revolutionary consciousness which influenced and motivated Black
students across the country to challenge oppressive structures and ideas.

BC, SASO and the Soweto Riots proved that children of school-going age were
recognised as a potential political constituency in their own right. The new political
consciousness instilled in the youth obviously agitated the apartheid regime. The
process leading up to the Soweto uprising saw Black school-going youth catapult
themselves to the forefront of militant opposition to apartheid. However, the events of 16
June were the unintended result of a series of ad hoc decisions made by a young and
patchily organised student movement comprised of both boys and girls.

The process itself reveals all the elements which contributed to the “take-off” of the
youth factor - principally the growth of a powerful, aggressive, but as yet untested
generational consciousness. This consciousness was fuelled by widespread economic
and social grievances, and the absence of political channels for its articulation.

The 1976 riots drew white attention to Black Consciousness, but it must be noted that
Biko had nurtured his views over the previous decade. Due to his earlier role and his
part in influencing the riots, Biko became one of the most carefully watched people in
the country and was detained several times. Yet his ideas continued to influence high-
school students through the church, and debating and cultural societies outside of state
control.

Biko’s imprisonment, death and the aftermath

In the wake of the urban revolt of 1976, with prospects of a national revolution becoming
apparent, security police detained Biko, the outspoken student leader, on August
18th. He was thirty years old and was reportedly extremely fit when arrested. He was
detained in Port Elizabeth and on 11 September 1977, he was moved to Pretoria
Central Prison, Transvaal (now Gauteng). On 12 September, he died in detention - the
20th person to have died in detention in the preceding eighteen months.

A post-mortem was conducted the day after Biko’s death, at which his family was
present. The explanation given by the Minister of Justice and Police, Jimmy Kruger, was
that Biko died while on a hunger strike. This explanation was not sufficient for observers
and people close to Biko. The medical reports received by Minister Kruger were not
made public.

As Biko was the twentieth person to die in police custody, a number of newspapers
did their own private investigations and learned that Biko died from brain injuries. Their
investigations also revealed that Biko was assaulted before he was transported to
Pretoria without any medical attention. Three South African newspapers carried reports
that Biko did not die as a result of a hunger strike.

Kruger took one of these papers, the Rand Daily Mail to the South African Press
Council to lodge a complaint after it had published a front-page story claiming that Steve
Biko had suffered extensive brain damage. The Star, another daily press, came out in
support of the Rand Daily Mail and pointed out that newspapers would continue to write
about the circumstances surrounding Biko’s death because the police were found to be
responsible.

The World and Weekend World newspapers also continued to cover reports about the
death of Biko. The two newspapers augmented earlier reports by pointing out that Biko
was not the first person to die while in detention. Moreover, all these deaths happened
under mysterious circumstances. In addition, the Johannesburg Sunday Express said
that sources connected with the forensic investigation maintained that brain damage
had been the cause of death. In Britain, it was learned from South African sources
that fluid drawn from the victim’s spine revealed many red cells - an indication of brain
damage.

A photograph of Biko lying in his coffin was taken secretly just before the funeral, and
sent by an underground South African source to Britain. This was seen as added proof
that the anti-apartheid student activist had been beaten to death while in prison. Kruger
claimed that he had never fired any police officer for brutality or any related misconduct,
and he strenuously denied the beating of Biko in an interview with the American Time
magazine.

Biko’s brutal death made him a martyr in the history of Black resistance to white
hegemony. It inflamed Black anger and inspired a rededication to the struggle for
freedom. Progressive Federal Party parliamentarian, Helen Suzman, warned Minister
of Justice, Jimmy Kruger, that “The world was not going to forget the Biko affair,”
adding, “We will not forget it either.”

Kruger’s reply that Biko’s death “left him cold,” echoed around the world. A widespread
crackdown on Black student organisations and political movements followed. Just
before the Biko and deaths in detention inquest, police honed in on the remaining Black
Consciousness resistance organisations.

In the process, two of Biko’s White friends, the Reverend Beyers Naudé and Donald
Woods were banned, and Percy Qoboza, editor of The World, was banned for allegedly
writing exaggerated articles about the manner of Biko’s death. Prime Minister Vorster
called an election, and a large majority of white voters called for Vorster’s Nationalist
Government to remain in power to face the formidable challenge of a distinctly polarised
Black population.

An international outcry, and condemnation of South Africa’s security laws led directly
to the West’s decision to support the United Nations (UN) Security Council vote to
ban mandatory arms sales to South Africa (Resolution 418 of 4 November 1977). The
South African problem had been on the international agenda almost from the start of the
United Nations, and was acknowledged as an international “problem” by the Western
powers after Sharpeville in 1960.

It was also kept on the agenda through sustained Afro-Asian diplomatic efforts that
were conducted under the auspices of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). Institutional
pressure on the Western powers “to do something” about South Africa was intensified
after the Soweto riots in 1976, particularly following the death of Steve Biko in police
custody.

These events led to a new round of Security Council meetings and a mandatory arms
embargo – the first time that action had been taken against South Africa under Chapter
VII of the United Nations Charter. Codes of conduct for Western businesses operating
in South Africa were also introduced, due to a newspaper campaign in Britain that
accused Western businesses of profiting from apartheid by paying their workers below
subsistence wages.

In South Africa, urban conditions for Blacks continued to deteriorate, as large numbers
of impoverished Bantustan inhabitants – now ignored by the labour recruiters –
bypassed influx control mechanisms in their search for employment. Consequently,
informal settlements outside the cities became overcrowded as the state halted the
provision of new urban housing. Transport also deteriorated and discontent mounted
among both workers and the unemployed.

At the same time, the relative success of the workers’ strikes and other institutional
shortcomings inspired the Black Consciousness Movement. The United States
Congress also called for a probe into Biko’s death. The congress sent a letter of request
to the South African Ambassador, Donald B Sole, in the USA. The letter requested that
an international panel of experts be established to investigate the death of Biko. The
letter’s demands were not limited to Biko’s death, as it also requested an investigation
of South Africa’s detention practices. Moreover, the letter stated that the death of Biko
highlighted South Africa’s human rights record and would add to the country’s further
isolation.

SASO, the South African Students’ Movement (SASM) and the Soweto Students’
Representative Council (SSRC) were defunct by the end of 1977. The principal leaders
were either in jail, in exile, or dead. The establishment of new movements drawing on
the experiences of 1976 was needed, with the immediate task of constructing a new
unified ideology.

Although many people were still nervous about political activity following the 1977
crackdown on BC organisations, the Azanian Peoples’ Organisation (AZAPO) was
formed in 1978 as a successor to the proscribed Black Consciousness structures. It was
an attempt at further espousing and re-inventing the Black Consciousness philosophy,
which Biko bequeathed to South Africa. It launched a student wing, the Azanian
Students’ Organisation (AZASO), made up of university students. AZAPO and AZASO
therefore filled the organisational vacuum in the townships created by the banning of the
ANC, PAC and the BCM. At this stage, no obvious conflict between the new groups and
the ANC tradition existed.

The Inquest into Biko's Death and his funeral

Prior to Biko's inquest, magistrates had declined to examine the interrogation methods
used, and had attributed detention deaths to natural causes, suicides or prison
accidents. At the inquest into Biko’s death, no government official was prepared to
condemn his treatment. The circumstances of his death were said to be inconclusive,
and death was attributed to a 'prison accident.' However, evidence presented during the
15-day inquest into Biko’s death revealed otherwise.

During his detention in a Port Elizabeth prison cell he had been chained to a grill at
night and left to lie in urine-soaked blankets. He had been stripped naked and kept in
leg-irons for 48 hours in his cell. A scuffle with security police caused brain damage. He
was then driven, naked and manacled in the back of a police van, to Pretoria. He died
there on 12 September 1977.

Biko's funeral was the first big political funeral in South Africa. As bus-loads of mourners
neared Biko's burial town (King William’s Town), they passed Black youths standing
solemnly along the road with their clenched fists raised. Prominent white liberals,
such as the parliamentarian, Helen Suzman, attended. So did the black American
diplomat, Donald McHenry and other international dignitaries. At the funeral, 20 000
people marched and sang freedom songs. For five hours, speakers eulogised Biko. The
Reverend Xundu, the Transkei Anglican priest, who presided over the funeral, appealed
to God to take sides with the oppressed to overthrow the system.

Many incidents were reported of police disruption during and before the funeral. As the
funeral received widespread international coverage, the funeral was also an opportunity
to voice protest to a large audience. The South African government mobilised its riot
police to break groups of mourners in anticipation of the protest, and people who were
involved in the organisation of Biko’s funeral were arrested, detained, or banned.
People travelling to King William's town for the funeral were also arrested for not
carrying their pass books, to prevent them from attending the funeral.

However, according to The World newspaper, which was later banned, the biggest
incidence of police interference occurred in the Dube Young Women Christian
Association (YWCA), in Soweto. Mourners had gathered at the YWCA to hold a night
vigil prior to their departure by bus. The Black People's Convention had decided to go
ahead with the funeral arrangements even though the police had refused to give the two
buses permits. Therefore, while the buses were loading people, the riot police arrived
and began to smash windows and sjambok [whip] people on the bus. Police officers
also fired teargas canisters into the hall where other mourners were praying. Those
beaten by sjambokincluded then Bishop of Lesotho, Desmond Tutu’s wife, Leah Tutu
and 71 year old reverend William Moalusi of Orlando West AME church.

Two years later the South African Medical and Dental Council (SAMDC) disciplinary
committee found there was no prima facie case against the two doctors who had
treated Biko shortly before his death. Dissatisfied doctors had presented a petition to
the Council in February 1982 seeking another inquiry. However, this was rejected on
the grounds that no new evidence had come to light. Biko’s death caught the attention
of the international community, which increased the pressure on the South African
government to abolish its detention policies and called for an international probe on the
causes of Biko's death. Even close allies of South Africa, Britain and the United States
of America, expressed deep concern over Biko’s death.

It took eight years of intense pressure before the South African Medical Council took
disciplinary action. On 30 January 1985, the Pretoria Supreme Court ordered the
SAMDC to hold an inquiry into the conduct of the two doctors who treated Steve
Biko for five days before he died. In judgment handed down Judge President of the
Transvaal Justice W. G. Boshoff said that there was prima facie evidence of improper or
disgraceful conduct on the part of the “Biko” doctors in a professional respect.

Sadly, Biko’s death did not put an end to the ill-treatment of prisoners. Years later,
when young Dr Wendy Orr made her disclosures about the treatment of detainees in
the Eastern Cape, it became clear that conditions had changed very little. In September
1987, Helen Suzman once again produced claims of torture and ill-treatment in
detention with thirty-seven signed affidavits.

In 1997, Biko’s killers appeared before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
(TRC) to request amnesty for the death of the student leader. However, they only
claimed responsibility for assaulting him and maintained that his death was accidental.
They also testified that they lied about his date of death. The family of Biko opposed
the TRC hearings on the grounds that they would rob them of justice. They accused
Harold Synman, the policeman responsible for Biko’s death, of adding more lies to the
circumstances surrounding Biko’s death.

Conclusion
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.

‘The Black Consciousness Movement’ from South African History Online,

www.sahistory.org.za

3. WILLIAM EDWARD DURGHARDT DU BOIS

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963) was a major African American scholar, an
early leader in the 20th-century African American protest movement, and an advocate of pan-
Africanism.
On Feb. 23, 1868, W. E. B. Du Bois was born in Great Barrington, Mass., where he grew up.
During his youth he did some newspaper reporting. In 1884 he graduated as valedictorian
from high school. He got his bachelor of arts from Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., in 1888,
having spent summers teaching in African American schools in Nashville's rural areas. In 1888
he entered Harvard University as a junior, took a bachelor of arts cum laude in 1890, and was
one of six commencement speakers. From 1892 to 1894 he pursued graduate studies in history
and economics at the University of Berlin on a Slater Fund fellowship. He served for 2 years as
professor of Greek and Latin at Wilberforce University in Ohio.
In 1891 Du Bois got his master of arts and in 1895 his doctorate in history from Harvard. His
dissertation, The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America, 1638-
1870, was published as No. 1 in the Harvard Historical Series. This important work has yet to be
surpassed. In 1896 he married Nina Gomer, and they had two children.
In 1896-1897 Du Bois became assistant instructor in sociology at the University of
Pennsylvania. There he conducted the pioneering sociological study of an urban community,
published as The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study (1899). These first two works assured Du
Bois's place among America's leading scholars.
Du Bois's life and work were an inseparable mixture of scholarship, protest activity, and
polemics. All of his efforts were geared toward gaining equal treatment for black people in a
world dominated by whites and toward marshaling and presenting evidence to refute the myths
of racial inferiority.
As Racial Activist

In 1905 Du Bois was a founder and general secretary of the Niagara movement, an African
American protest group of scholars and professionals. Du Bois founded and edited theMoon
(1906) and the Horizon (1907-1910) as organs for the Niagara movement. In 1909 Du Bois
was among the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) and from 1910 to 1934 served it as director of publicity and research, a member of the
board of directors, and editor of the Crisis, its monthly magazine.

In the Crisis, Du Bois directed a constant stream of agitation--often bitter and sarcastic--at
white Americans while serving as a source of information and pride to African Americans. The
magazine always published young African American writers. Racial protest during the decade
following World War I focused on securing anti-lynching legislation. During this period the
NAACP was the leading protest organization and Du Bois its leading figure.

In 1934 Du Bois resigned from the NAACP board and from the Crisis because of his new
advocacy of an African American nationalist strategy: African American controlled institutions,
schools, and economic cooperatives. This approach opposed the NAACP's commitment to
integration. However, he returned to the NAACP as director of special research from 1944 to
1948. During this period he was active in placing the grievances of African Americans before the
United Nations, serving as a consultant to the UN founding convention (1945) and writing the
famous "An Appeal to the World" (1947).

Du Bois was a member of the Socialist party from 1910 to 1912 and always considered himself
a Socialist. In 1948 he was cochairman of the Council on African Affairs; in 1949 he attended
the New York, Paris, and Moscow peace congresses; in 1950 he served as chairman of the
Peace Information Center and ran for the U.S. Senate on the American Labor party ticket in
New York. In 1950-1951 Du Bois was tried and acquitted as an agent of a foreign power in one
of the most ludicrous actions ever taken by the American government. Du Bois traveled widely
throughout Russia and China in 1958-1959 and in 1961 joined the Communist party of the
United States. He also took up residence in Ghana, Africa, in 1961.

Pan-Africanism

Du Bois was also active in behalf of pan-Africanism and concerned with the conditions of people
of African descent wherever they lived. In 1900 he attended the First Pan-African Conference
held in London, was elected a vice president, and wrote the "Address to the Nations of the
World." The Niagara movement included a "pan-African department." In 1911 Du Bois attended
the First Universal Races Congress in London along with black intellectuals from Africa and the
West Indies.

Du Bois organized a series of pan-African congresses around the world, in 1919, 1921,
1923, and 1927. The delegations comprised intellectuals from Africa, the West Indies, and
the United States. Though resolutions condemning colonialism and calling for alleviation of
the oppression of Africans were passed, little concrete action was taken. The Fifth Congress
(1945, Manchester, England) elected Du Bois as chairman, but the power was clearly in the
hands of younger activists, such as George Padmore and Kwame Nkrumah, who later became
significant in the independence movements of their respective countries. Du Bois's final pan-
African gesture was to take up citizenship in Ghana in 1961 at the request of President Kwame
Nkrumah and to begin work as director of the Encyclopedia Africana.

As Scholar

Du Bois's most lasting contribution is his writing. As poet, playwright, novelist, essayist,
sociologist, historian, and journalist, he wrote 21 books, edited 15 more, and published over 100
essays and articles. Only a few of his most significant works will be mentioned here.

From 1897 to 1910 Du Bois served as professor of economics and history at Atlanta University,
where he organized conferences titled the Atlanta University Studies of the Negro Problem
and edited or co-edited 16 of the annual publications, on such topics as The Negro in Business
(1899), The Negro Artisan (1902), The Negro Church (1903), Economic Cooperation among
Negro Americans (1907), and The Negro American Family (1908). Other significant publications
were The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches (1903), one of the outstanding collections
of essays in American letters, and John Brown (1909), a sympathetic portrayal published in the
American Crisis Biographies series.

Du Bois also wrote two novels, The Quest of the Silver Fleece (1911) and Dark Princess: A
Romance (1928); a book of essays and poetry, Darkwater: Voices from within the Veil(1920);
and two histories of black people, The Negro (1915) and The Gift of Black Folk: Negroes in the
Making of America (1924).

From 1934 to 1944 Du Bois was chairman of the department of sociology at Atlanta University.
In 1940 he founded Phylon, a social science quarterly. Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-
1880 (1935), perhaps his most significant historical work, details the role of African Americans
in American society, specifically during the Reconstruction period. The book was criticized
for its use of Marxist concepts and for its attacks on the racist character of much of American
historiography. However, it remains the best single source on its subject.

Black Folk, Then and Now (1939) is an elaboration of the history of black people in Africa and
the New World. Color and Democracy: Colonies and Peace (1945) is a brief call for the granting
of independence to Africans, and The World and Africa: An Inquiry into the Part Which Africa
Has Played in World History (1947; enlarged ed. 1965) is a major work anticipating many later
scholarly conclusions regarding the significance and complexity of African history and culture. A
trilogy of novels, collectively entitled The Black Flame (1957, 1959, 1961), and a selection of his
writings, An ABC of Color (1963), are also worthy.
Du Bois received many honorary degrees, was a fellow and life member of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the National Institute of Arts and
Letters. He was the outstanding African American intellectual of his period in America.

Du Bois died in Ghana on Aug. 27, 1963, on the eve of the civil rights march in Washington,
D.C. He was given a state funeral, at which Kwame Nkrumah remarked that he was "a
phenomenon."
Source Africa Within

4. MARCUS GARVEY

Marcus Moses Garvey was born in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica on August 17, 1887. He was
the youngest of a large family, which saw only him and one sister make it to adulthood. He
attended a local elementary school and, in his own words, graduated from the Church of
England High School. At the age of 14 he was forced out of school because of family financial
problems and was apprenticed to his godfather to learn the printing trade. It was here that
Garvey had access to a substantial library and picked up the journalistic techniques that aided
his future writing abilities (Cronon 3-11).
By the age of 17 Garvey moved to Kingston to work for an Uncle from his mother’s side, and
in 1903 he moved his mother to Kingston because of her financial necessity. During his time
in Kingston Garvey, a former country boy, learned the ways of city life. He began to take up
public speaking, which “was sound training for a man who would one day sway thousands with
his magnetic oratory.” (Cronon 12) Garvey also mastered the skills of printing and became a
foreman for P.A. Benjamin Company.
Throughout 1911 Garvey traveled to places like Panama, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela,
where he continually observed the disposition of the black race. Unhappy about the position of
the black race, Garvey left for London in 1912 so that he could learn about the condition of black
people throughout all of the British Empire. Garvey took full advantage of his time in London,
and after reading Booker T. Washington’s Up from Slavery, he hurried back home to Jamaica in
1914 inspired to change black peoples’ low standing in the world.
Back home in Jamaica on Aug. 1, 1914, Garvey started the Universal Negro Improvement
Association (U.N.I.A). The overall objective of the U.N.I.A was to improve black life around the
world, not just in Jamaica, England or America. One of the first objectives of the organization
was to open a school for blacks in Jamaica modeled after Washington’s Tuskegee institute in
America. The whites of Jamaica supported his cause, while the blacks were indifferent and the
mulattos hated it. Because of this seemingly backwards support, Garvey looked to Washington
and America for the black support he would need to get his operation off the ground. Even
though Washington died before Garvey could make it too America, he still prepared, and landed
in Harlem on March 23, 1916. (Cronon 16-20)
While in America, Garvey tried to raise funds for the school in Jamaica by giving speeches,
but his “failure to attract large audiences” encouraged him to move his base of operations to
New York (Stein 41). He started a branch of the UNIA in late 1917. In January, 1918 the UNIA
began printing theNegro World newspaper which helped the organization gain recognition.
The branch began slowly, and after a few attempts by some of the UNIA’s leaders to turn the
motives of the organization political, Garvey left his presidential position of the Jamaica division
to become head of the New York division.
In May, 1919 the success of the UNIA led Garvey to announce his next big project, the Black
Star Line. The Black Star Line was supposed to be a shipping company between America
and Africa manned by an all black crew. Garvey believed the company would be a first step
in improving blacks as a commercial and industrious people (Stein 64). Because the capital
necessary to fund an operation like this was not available to blacks, Garvey was forced to
turn to the public for funds. At first it appeared the funds would not be appropriated in time to
purchase the Black Star Line’s first ship, but W. L. Harris, the owner of the Yarmouth, allowed
the Black Star Line to operate on a payment contingency. The ship was renamed to the S.S.
Frederick Douglass, and the Black Star Line was finally ready for business (Cronon 54-5).
Judith Stein states, “The Black Star Line transformed Garvey into an international leader of
black communities on three continents.” (89) In addition to the Black Star Line was the Negroes
Factories Corporation, started in 1919, which helped develop a “chain of co-operative grocery
stores, a restaurant, a steam laundry, a tailor and dressmaking shop, a millinery store, and a
publishing house.” (Cronon 60) These two corporations, along with the objectives and large
membership of the UNIA, began to infuse the black community with a sense of pride. Marcus
Garvey, showing success in many ways, had reached his pinnacle during the early 1920s
(Cronon 68-9).
On June 25, 1922 Garvey had a two hour meeting with Edward Clarke, who was a high ranking
member of the Ku Klux Klan. Garvey’s motives behind the meeting were a political ploy to
advance the UNIA in the south where 4 out of 5 blacks lived in America (Stein 154).
As fast as Garvey climbed to the top, his fall seemed to come even faster. For numerous
reasons: buying bad ships, surrounding himself with poor support, agitating prominent
individuals through journalism, poor appropriation of UNIA and corporate funds, etc. led to a
federal investigation on the selling of misrepresented stocks. In February, 1922 Garvey and
three of his associates were indicted on twelve counts of mail fraud (Cronon 100-1). Later in
1922, Garvey accused a high priest and member of the UNIA, of mismanagement of funds.
His name was J. W. Eason and David Cronon refers to him as one of the “most effective critics
of Garveyism.” (Cronon 110) Eason formed a rival organization, and was assassinated early
in January 1923. Garvey, though never arrested, was thought to be behind the killing, which
prompted eight prominent blacks to protest the delay of Garvey’s earlier indictment on mail
fraud. The trial began on May 18, and Garvey was sentenced to 5 years in prison on June 21.
Barely serving any time, he was out again on bail September 10, after his attorneys filed an
appeal (Cronon 110-18).
In March 1925 the Supreme Court finally denied Garvey’s appeal, and he was promptly taken
to the Atlanta penitentiary. From jail Garvey continued his fight for innocence. After thousands
of petition signers, along with prominent individuals’ making arguments on Garvey’s behalf,
President Coolidge granted him a pardon on November 18, 1927. The pardon was only granted
on the basis that he would be deported back to Jamaica (Stein 207).
Garvey would never set foot on American soil again, but “Garvey persistently sought to regain
the power and influence that he had tasted briefly.” (Stein 248) Garvey continued to lecture in
Canada and Europe, and in 1929 he held an international meeting for the UNIA in Kingston.
He also reincorporated the UNIA which caused a division between his Jamaican base and the
American base of the organization. In 1930 Garvey’s first son was born, and in 1933 he had a
second. In 1935 he relocated to London. Garvey continued small publishings’ and speaking
tours. Finally, in 1940, Garvey suffered two cerebral hemorrhages; the second caused his
death. (Hill & Bair xvi-xviii).
“Garvey’s last years were spent alone, apart from other Pan-Africanists and then also from
his own family.” (Stein 271) It is a sad end for a man who inspired millions of blacks to rise up
against white oppressors. Although his character was rough around the edges, and he had
many difficult relationships in business, journalism, and politics, Garvey brought pride to the
black race. He did not just target one political arena; Garvey targeted the world, and he showed
black people that they are just as intelligent and beautiful as any race to ever walk the Earth.

Source csustan.edu

5. JOMO KENYATTA
Jomo Kenyatta was born at Ng'enda in the Gatundu Division of Kiambu in the year 1889.
His parents were Muigai and Wambui. James Muigai is his stepbrother. As a boy, Kenyatta
assisted his grandfather, who was a medicine man. Kenyatta took interest in Agikuyu culture
and customs. He received his preliminary education at the Scottish Mission Center at Thogoto.
He also received elementary technical education there.

He was later baptized a Christian with the name of John Peter, which he changed to Johnstone.
He changed his name to Jomo in 1938. He lived among Maasai relatives in Narok during World
War I. Here he worked as a clerk to an Asian trader. After the war, he served as a storekeeper
to a European firm. At this time, he began wearing his beaded belt Kinyatta.

He married Grace Wahu in 1920, the mother of Peter Muigai and Margaret Wambui. He worked
in the Nairobi City Council water department between 1921-26 on a salary of about Shillings
250.00 per month. Though he owned a shamba and a house at Dagoretti, he preferred to live
closer to town at Kilimani in a hut and cycled home during weekends. By 1925, he was one of
the leaders of the Kikuyu Central Association (KCA), which chose him to represent the Kikuyu
land problems before the Hilton Young Commission in Nairobi. Thus starting his career in
politics.

In 1928, he published his newspaper, Muigwithania that dealt with Kikuyu culture and new
farming methods. KCA sent him to England in 1929 to influence British opinion on tribal land.
After touring some parts of Europe, including Russia in 1930, he returned to Kenya to fight the
case on female circumcision with the Scottish Mission. He supported the independent schools.

In 1931, he again went to England to present a written petition to parliament. He met Mahatma
Gandhi of India in November 1932. After giving evidence before the Morris Carter Commission,
he proceeded to Moscow to learn Economics but was forced to return to Britain by 1933. During
the gold rush, land in Kakamega reserve was being distributed to settlers. This made Kenyatta
angry and spoke about Britain's injustice. For which reason he was dubbed a communist by the
British. He taught Gikuyu at the University College, London and also wrote a book on the Kikuyu
language in 1937. Under Professor Malinowski, he studied Anthropology at the famous London
School of Economics (LSE). In 1938, his book, "Facing Mount Kenya" saw the light of day. It
was about Kikuyu customs.

During the World War II , Kenyatta served on a farm in the United Kingdom, while owning his
own farm there. He married Edna Clarke, mother of his son, Peter Magana in 1942. Along
with other African leaders, including Nkrumah of Ghana, he took part in the 5th Pan-African
Congress of 1945 in Manchester.

When he returned to Kenya in 1946, he married Wanjiku, Senior Chief Koinange's daughter,
who gave birth to his daughter Jane Wambui. During his travels in the countryside at Kiambu,
Murang'a and Nyeri, he took the opportunity to contact the local people and to speak to them.
His last wife was Mama Ngina, the mother of Christine Uhuru, Anna Nyokabi and Muhoho. In
1947, he took over the leadership of KAU from James Gichuru.
On October 20, 1952, Sir Evelyn, Baring, newly appointed Governor of Kenya of two weeks,
declared a state of emergency in the country. Jomo Kenyatta and other prominent leaders were
arrested. His trial at Kapenguria on April 8, 1953, for managing Mau Mau, was a mockery of
justice. He was sentenced to 7 years in imprison with hard labor and to indefinite restrictions
thereafter. On April 14, 1959, Jomo Kenyatta completed his sentence at Lokitaung but remained
in restriction at Lodwar. Later, he was moved to Maralal, where he remained until August 1961.
On August 14, 1961, he was allowed to return to his Gatundu home. On August 21, 1961, nine
years after his arrest, he was freed from all restrictions.

On October 28, 1961, Kenyatta became the President of the Kenya African National Union
and a month later he headed a KANU delegation to London for talks to prepare the way for the
Lancaster House Conference.

On June 1, 1963, Mzee Kenyatta became the first Prime Minister of self-governing Kenya.
At midnight on December 12, 1963, at Uhuru Stadium, amid world leaders and multitudes of
people, the Kenya flag was unfurled. A new nation was born. A year later on December 12,
1964, Kenya became a Republic within the Commonwealth, with Kenyatta, as the President.

Mzee Kenyatta is acclaimed from all quarters of the world as a true son of Africa, a renowned
leader of vision, initiative, guidance and an international public figure of the highest caliber.
Kenya under the "Baba Wa Taifa" (Father of the Nation) had enjoyed political stability, economic
progress as well as agricultural, industrial and educational advances. From 1974 onwards,
Mzee declared free primary education up to primary grade 4.

He died on 22nd August 1978 at 3.30 A.M. in Mombasa at the age of 89 years, while there
on a busy working holiday for the last time. President Kenyatta is acknowledged as one of the
greatest men of the 20th century. His rule will go down in history as a golden era in Kenya's
positive development.

source africawithin.

6. ROBERT MANGALISO SOBUKWE

Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe was born in Graaff-Reinet in the Cape Province in 1924. His father
was a farm worker and his mother had no formal education. Sobukwe was an excellent student,
which won him a scholarship to the Methodist boarding school at Healdtown in the Eastern
Cape. Afterwards he enrolled at Fort Hare University, where he displayed a keen interest in
literature.
At Fort Hare, where generations of young Black South Africans were exposed to politics, he
joined the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) in 1948. The organisation had
been established on the university campus by Godfrey Pitje, who later became its president. In
1949, Sobukwe was elected as president of the Fort Hare Students' Representative Council,
where he proved himself to be a good orator.
In 1950, Sobukwe was appointed as a teacher at a high school in Standerton, a position
he lost when he spoke out in favour of the Defiance Campaign in 1952. He was, however,
reinstated. During this period he was not directly involved with mainstream African National
Congress (ANC) activities, but still held the position of secretary of the organisation’s branch in
Standerton.
In 1954, after moving to Johannesburg, Sobukwe became a lecturer of African Studies at the
University of the Witwatersrand. During his time in Johannesburg he edited The Africanist and
soon began to criticise the ANC for allowing itself to be dominated by what he termed 'liberal-
left-multi-racialists'.
The “Prof”, as his friends called him, was a charismatic speaker, and in 1958 he was
instrumental in initiating a breakaway from the ANC, resulting in the birth of the Pan Africanist
Congress (PAC). He was unanimously elected as the president of the movement at its inaugural
congress. Sobukwe's eloquence as a public speaker, his intelligence and commitment to his
cause soon established him as natural leader, and helped him rally support for the PAC.
Sobukwe’s opposition to what he termed “multi-racialism” in favour of “non-racialism” is
supported by an extract from his inaugural speech to the PAC in 1959:
"Further, multi-racialism is in fact a pandering to European bigotry and arrogance. It is a method
of safeguarding white interests, implying as it does, proportional representation irrespective of
population figures. In that sense it is a complete negation of democracy.
To us the term "multi-racialism" implies that there are such basic insuperable differences
between the various national groups here that the best course is to keep them permanently
distinctive in a kind of democratic apartheid. That to us is racialism multiplied, which probably is
what the term truly connotes. We aim, politically, at government of the Africans by the Africans,
for the Africans, with everybody who owes his only loyalty to Afrika and who is prepared to
accept the democratic rule of an African majority being regarded as an African.
We guarantee no minority rights, because we think in terms of individuals, not groups."
On 21 March 1960, at the launch of the PAC anti-pass campaign, he resigned from his post
as teacher. He made last minute arrangements for the safety of his family and left his home in
Molofo. He intended to give himself up for arrest at the Orlando police station in the hope that
his actions would inspire other Black South Africans. On the 8-km walk to the police station,
small groups of men joined him from neighbouring areas like Phefeni, Dube and Orlando West.
As the small crowd approached the station most of them, including Sobukwe, were arrested.
He was harshly sentenced to three years in prison, at the end of which Parliament enacted a
General Law Amendment Act, which empowered the Minister of Justice to prolong the detention
of any political prisoner indefinitely. Subsequently, he was moved to Robben Island, where he
remained for an additional six years.
After his release in 1969, Sobukwe was allowed to join his family in Kimberley but remained
under twelve-hour house arrest. He was also restricted from any political activity as a result of a
banning order that had been imposed on the PAC. During his incarceration Sobukwe obtained
an Honours Degree in Economics from the University of London, and began studying Law. He
completed his articles in Kimberley, and established his own law firm in 1975.
Although he was offered several teaching posts at American universities, he was prevented
from going overseas by the apartheid government.
Robert Sobukwe passed away on 27 February 1978 from lung cancer. Today, he remains a
celebrated political figure in the struggle for a democratic South Africa.

‘People/Biographies/Sobukwe’ from South African History Online, www.sahistory.org.za

7. STEPHEN BANTU BIKO

Born in King William’s Town in the Eastern Cape Province on December 18, 1946, Stephen
Bantu Biko’s early life was modest. His main pre-occupation was the pursuit of academic
excellence, which was in line with his father’s expectations. His father encouraged all his
children to pursue an education as the only possible route to upward social movement and
independence. Biko started his education around 1952 (the exact date varies from source to
source) against the background of the Bantu Education Act – an Act introduced to stifle Black
education. Essentially, the Act was designed to provide Blacks with sufficient education which
would not allow “a future without back-breaking labour.” Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, who
authored the Bill, said “There is no place for him [the Bantu] in the European community above
the level of certain forms of labour.”
Exposed to this type of education since primary school where he attended several schools, such
as Brownlee Primary, Charles Morgan Higher Primary, Lovedale Institute (which was eventually
closed due to student protest) and finally, St Francis (A Catholic boarding School outside
Durban), his political orientation emerged. While Biko was a student at Lovedale, his brother
was arrested and jailed for 9 months during a government crackdown for being a suspected
member of POQO (later APLA), the military wing of the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC). Biko
was also brought under interrogation by police and was subsequently expelled from the school
after only attending for three months. This event gave Biko a “strong resentment toward white
authority,” which he would harbour for years to come and this was to shape his political career.
From his expulsion from school incident, Biko’s career was characterised by political activism
which culminated in him engaging in educating and making Black people conscious of their
plight under an oppressive system. Throughout his career he became more distinguished as a
political agitator than as a student. His untiring commitment to Black Consciousness is the main
legacy he has bequeathed to later generations in South Africa’s struggle for freedom. Perhaps
his only blemish throughout an illustrious political career is that he is believed to have been
a “lady’s man and a womanizer.”
After matriculating from St Francis he enrolled at the University of Natal. It was here that Biko’s
political activism began to blossom and grow. He devoted much of his time to the cause of
Black emancipation. At university his desire to study medicine was hampered by his constant
involvement in political activities and organisations such as NUSAS. He became so immersed in
politics that his performance declined to levels that compelled university authorities to deregister
him. This happened at a time when he had also grown critical of the generally anti-black
structure of NUSAS. Since NUSAS’s power base was centred at the major white universities, it
was virtually impossible for Black students to achieve positions of leadership. In fact, a NUSAS
leader, Clive Nettleton, accused the organisation of “preaching the ideal of non-racism” while
some members were “unable to live out their ideals.” Thus, in 1968 Biko established a new
all-black and pro-black organisation namely the South African Students Organisation (SASO)
. He was elected as its first President in July 1969. One year later he was appointed Publicity
Secretary of the organisation.
SASO adopted a new pro-black and radical doctrine that became known as Black
Consciousness which by Biko’s own definition was the “cultural and political revival of an
oppressed people.”
By 1971, the Black Consciousness Movement had grown into a formidable force throughout the
country. In an attempt to reform SASO (which originally comprised students) and incorporate
the adult element Biko established the Black People’s Convention (BPC) as well as Black
Community Programmes (BCP).
The development of the BCM clearly threatened the settler machinery. It was only a matter of
time before Steve Biko was banned by the government. In 1973 he was formally banned and
confined to the magisterial district of King William’s Town, his birth place. Among other things,
the banning entailed prohibiting him from teaching or making public addresses (or speaking
to more than one person at a time), preventing him from entering educational institutions and
reporting to the local police station once every week. For breaking these provisions a “banee”
would be stigmatised as a criminal. In spite of being banned, Biko continued to advance
the work of Black Consciousness. For instance, he established an Eastern Cape branch of
BCP and through BCP he organised literacy and dressmaking classes and health education
programmes. Quite significantly, he set up a health clinic outside King William’s Town for poor
rural Blacks who battled to access city hospitals.
The banning and detention of several SASO and BPC leaders under the Terrorism Act
threatened to cripple the Black Consciousness Movement. However, the accused used the
seventeen-month trial that followed as a platform to state the case of Black Consciousness.
Although they were found guilty and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment for
revolutionary conspiracy they were later acquitted. Their convictions further strengthened the
Black Consciousness movement. The repression instituted under the Terrorism Act caused
Blacks to lose sympathy with moderate revolutionary policies, leading to more militancy and
hope for emancipation. During the Soweto riots of June 1976 there were violent clashes
between high school students (protesting the use of Afrikaans as the medium of academic
instruction) and police marking the beginning of widespread urban unrest, which threatened law
and order.
The wave of strikes during and after Soweto demonstrated, to a large extent, the influence Biko
exerted on South African socio-political life. Although he did not directly take part in the Soweto
riots, the influence of Black Consciousness ideas spurred students to fight an unjust system
particularly after they were compelled to accept Afrikaans as a language for use in schools. In
the wake of the urban revolt of 1976 and with the prospects of national revolution becoming
increasingly real, security police detained Biko, the outspoken student leader, on August 18th.
At this time Biko had begun studying law by mail through the University of South Africa/UNISA.
He was thirty years old and was reportedly extremely fit when arrested. He was taken to Port
Elizabeth but was later transferred to Pretoria where he died in detention under mysterious
circumstances in 1977.
Thirteen Western nations sent diplomats to his funeral on 25 September. Nevertheless, police
actions prevented thousands of mourners from reaching the funeral venue from Johannesburg,
Durban, Cape Town and other areas on the grounds that this would lead to lawlessness. Police
armed with FN rifles and machine guns erected and manned a number of roadblocks to prevent
thousands of mourners from all over the country to converge on the town for the funeral of
Steve Biko. Mourners from the Transvaal were barred from attending the funeral when permits
were refused for buses. One of the speakers, Dr. Nthato Motlana, who flew from Johannesburg
after he was blocked off when attempting to travel by road, said at the funeral that he had
watched with disgust as black police hauled mourners off the buses in Soweto and assaulted
them with truncheons. The physician said he had treated 30 of the mourners, some for fractured
skulls, and allegedly witnessed a number of young women being raped.
Later in the day, Steve Biko was buried in a muddy plot beside the railroad tracks after a
marathon funeral that was as much a protest rally against the white minority government’s
racial policies as it was a commemoration of the country’s foremost young black leader. Several
thousand black mourners punched the air with clenched fists and shouted “Power!” as Biko’s
coffin was lowered into the grave. The crowd of more than ten thousand listened to successive
speakers warning the government that Biko’s death would push Blacks further towards violence
in their quest for racial equality.
Due to local and international outcry his death prompted an inquest which at first did not
adequately reveal the circumstances surrounding his death. Police alleged that he died from a
hunger strike and independent sources said he was brutally murdered by police. Although his
death was attributed to “a prison accident,” evidence presented during the 15-day inquest into
Biko’s death revealed otherwise. During his detention in a Port Elizabeth police cell he had been
chained to a grill at night and left to lie in urine-soaked blankets. He had been stripped naked
and kept in leg-irons for 48 hours in his cell. A blow in a scuffle with security police led to him
suffering brain damage by the time he was driven naked and manacled in the back of a police
van to Pretoria, where, on 12 September 1977 he died.
Two years later a South African Medical and Dental Council (SAMDC) disciplinary committee
found there was no prima facie case against the two doctors who had treated Biko shortly
before his death. Dissatisfied doctors, seeking another inquiry into the role of the medical
authorities who had treated Biko shortly before his death, presented a petition to the SAMDC in
February 1982, but this was rejected on the grounds that no new evidence had come to light.
Biko’s death caught the attention of the international community, which increased the pressure
on the South African government to abolish its detention policies and called for an international
probe on the cause of his death. Even close allies of South Africa, Britain and the United States
of America, expressed deep concern about the death of Biko. They also joined the increasing
demand for an international probe.
It took eight years and intense pressure before the South African Medical Council took
disciplinary action. On 30 January, 1985, the Pretoria Supreme Court ordered the SAMDC to
hold an inquiry into the conduct of the two doctors who treated Steve Biko during the five days
before he died. Judge President of the Transvaal, Justice W G Boshoff, said in a landmark
judgment that there was prima facie evidence of improper or disgraceful conduct on the part of
the “Biko” doctors in a professional respect. This serves to illustrate that so many years after
Biko’s death his influence lived on.
He is survived by two sons.

‘People/biographies/Biko’ from South African History Online, www.sahistory.org.za