grade 12 history steve biko essay

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

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

Table of Contents

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

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

Early Life and Influences

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

Formation of the Black Consciousness Movement

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

Philosophy and Goals

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

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

Arrest, Death, and Legacy

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

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

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

How Essays are Assessed in Grade 12

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

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

Steve Biko: Black Consciousness Movement Grade 12 Essay s Topics

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

Introduction

K ey Definitions

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

(Background)

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

( Nature and Objectives of Black Consciousness )

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

Black Consciousness Movement Grade 12 Questions

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

How to answer and get good marks?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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HSTORY T2 Gr. 12 Black Consciousness Essay

Grade 12: The Challenge of Black Consciousness to the Apartheid State (Essay) PPT

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History Paper 2 Memorandum - Grade 12 June 2021 Exemplars

SECTION A: SOURCE-BASED QUESTIONS QUESTION 1: HOW DID SOUTH AFRICANS REACT TO P.W. BOTHA’S REFORMS IN THE 1980s? 1.1 1.1.1 [Extraction of information from Source 1A – L1]

• It granted rights to African trade unions
• Allowed privileges for the urban African workforce
• Create a black middle class  (Any 2 x 1)  (2)

1.1.2 [Interpretation of evidence from Source 1A – L2]

• The government hoped that there would be fewer uprisings in the townships
• The house owners would not tolerate the uprisings as it might damage their houses/property
• Any other relevant response (Any 1 x 2)  (2)

1.1.3 [Extraction of information from Source 1A – L1]

• Advertising campaigns
• New loans were made available (2 x 1)  (2)

1.2 1.2.1 [Interpretation of evidence of from Source 1B – L2]

• The apartheid government used harsher methods to oppress uprisings
• Many of the political leaders were in jail or in exile
• Any other relevant response (2 x 2)  (4)

1.2.2 [Extraction of information from Source 1B – L1]

• Reverend Allan Boesak
• Albertina Sisulu
• Patrick ‘Terror” Lekota  (Any 2 x 1)  (2)

1.2.3 [Extraction of information from Source 1B – L1]

• Freedom from the apartheid regime  (1 x 2) (2)

1.2.4 [Interpretation of evidence of from Source 1B – L2]

• They had the same goal and that was to end apartheid
• As the ANC was banned, it called on the UDF to increase internal pressure on the government
• Any other relevant response (2 x 2) (4)

1.2.5 [Evaluating the usefulness of Source 1B – L3] The source is useful because:

• It coordinated the anti-apartheid groups so that effective protests could be launched
• The UDF brought together many different anti-apartheid organisations across the country
• As it was a loose alliance, the government could not easily destroy it
• The UDF made the country ungovernable through various campaigns
• Any other relevant response (Any 2 x 2) (4)

1.3 1.3.1 [Interpretation of evidence from Source 1C – L2]

• To discourage Coloured and Indians from participating in the elections for the Tri-cameral parliament
• The reforms were seen as cosmetic and the political power would still remain in the hands of the white minority
• The fact that black South Africans were left out of the new parliamentary system

1.3.2 [Extraction of information from Source 1C – L1]

• ‘Don’t Vote’ campaign (1 x 2) (2)

1.3.3 [Interpretation of evidence from Source 1C – L2]

• To make people aware of the need to organise and actively resist apartheid
• To mobilise South Africans to fight against discrimination and oppression
• Any other relevant response (2 x 2) (4)

1.4 [Comparison of Source 1B and Source 1C – L3]

• Source 1B indicates that the UDF became a mass-based organisation and Source 1C shows the many people/organisations that were affiliated to the UDF
• Source 1B refers to resistance campaigns launched by the UDF and Source 1C show the ‘Don’t Vote’ campaign
• Source 1B indicates that the goal was to get freedom from the apartheid regime and Source 1C shows them fighting for freedom

1.5 1.5.1 [Explanation of historical concept from Source 1D – L1]

• The power of the ordinary people to bring change
• To insist on a government that represents their interests
• Any other relevant response (Any 1 x 2) (2)

1.5.2 [Extraction of information from Source 1D – L1]

• Rent boycotts
• Consumer boycotts (2 x 1) (2)

1.5.3 [Interpretation of evidence from Source 1D – L2]

• The rent money was not used to improve the conditions/facilities in their communities
• The black councillors who collected the rent became corrupt and were seen as ‘sell-outs’

1.6 [Interpretation, evaluation and synthesis of evidence from relevant sources- L3] Candidates could include the following aspects in their response:

• Black South Africans saw Botha’s reforms as cosmetic (own knowledge)
• Tri-cameral parliament was rejected by black South Africans (own knowledge)
• UDF formed to oppose apartheid (Source 1B)
• UDF coordinated the actions against apartheid (Source 1B)
• Protests, rent and consumer boycotts held (Source 1B and Source 1D)
• Different organisations affiliated to the UDF (Source 1B)
• UDF held anti-elections campaigns (Source 1C)
• People demanded freedom (Source 1C)
• Civic organisations fought for better conditions in townships (Source 1D)
• Workers, student organisations and churches joined the protest actions against apartheid (own knowledge)
• Any other relevant response

Use the following rubric to allocate marks:

(8)      [50]

QUESTION 2: HOW SUCCESSFUL WAS THE TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION (TRC) IN DEALING WITH THE DEATH OF ACTIVIST LENNY NAIDU? 2.1 2.1.1 [Extraction of information from Source 2A – L1]

• Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) (1 x 2) (2)

2.1.2 [Extraction of information from Source 2A – L1]

• Advancing the ideas of non-racialism and unity
• Fighting for freedom
• Striving to improve the quality of life of all people (3 x 1) (3)

2.1.3 [Interpretation of evidence from Source 2A – L2]

• If caught he would be jailed or killed by the apartheid system
• He openly rebelled against apartheid and was thus perceived as a threat
• Could not operate freely to dismantle apartheid
• Determined to fight against the unjust apartheid system
• Any other relevant response (Any 2 x 2)  (4)

2.1.4 [Interpretation of evidence from Source 2A – L2]

• He was waiting to execute the instructions or orders from the ANC in South Africa
• Which government institutions he had to attack/destroy
• Any other relevant response (Any 1 x 2) (2)

2.2 2.2.1 [Extraction of evidence from Source 2B – L1]

• He would have been charged for being a member of the ANC
• Charged without a passport (Any 2 x 1) (2)

2.2.2 [Extraction of evidence from Source2B – L1]

• Eugene De Kock
• Mr Nafumela (2 x 1) (2)

2.2.3 [Interpretation of evidence of from Source 2B – L2] NO.

• The commissioner told them to wait for full disclosure at the amnesty hearing
• They will find a lead of what happened at the hearing

2.2.4 [Extraction of evidence from Source 2B – L1]

• Murder (1 x 2) (2)

2.2.5 [Evaluating the reliability of Source 2B – L3] The source is reliable because:

• The parents and brother were convinced that Lenny was murdered
• Both de Kock and Nafumela are guilty because they applied for amnesty
• They were able to speak their hearts out and get some kind of closure

OR The source is not reliable because:

• It did not give full disclosure because the commissioner told them they still have to wait for the amnesty hearing
• Both of them still believed that they were innocent by applying for amnesty
• Any relevant response (Any 2 x 2) (4)

2.3 2.3.1 [Extraction of evidence from Source 2C – L1]

• ‘How two sets of Umkhonto we Sizwe cadres were ambushed at Piet Retief’ (1 x 2)  (2)

2.3.2 [Interpretation of evidence from Source 2C – L2]

• Swaziland supported the ANC’s fight against the apartheid regime
• Swaziland did not favour white minority rule in South Africa
• Swaziland wanted a free, democratic and liberated South Africa
• Swaziland was one of the closest independent African countries and therefore ANC cadres were able to gain access for onward travel to MK training camps, for example in Lusaka (Zambia)

2.3.3 [Extraction of evidence from Source 2C – L2]

• Charity Nyembezi
• Makhosi Nyoka
• Nonsikelelo Cothoza (3 x 1) (3)

2.4 2.4.1 [Interpretation of evidence from Source 2D – L2]

• The cartoon shows Eugene de Kock submitting his application for amnesty to the TRC
• It depicts Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the chairperson of the TRC receiving De Kock’s application
• The cartoon shows a very long list of crimes that were committed by De Kock

2.4.2 [Interpretation of evidence from Source 2D – L2]

• Tutu wanted De Kock to list all the crimes that he had committed before he could apply for amnesty
• De Kock had committed a number of human rights crimes against anti-apartheid activists
• De Kock was famous as a killer of anti-apartheid activist

2.5 [Comparison of Source 2C and Source 2D – L3]

• Source 2C explains De Kock’s application for amnesty and Source 2D shows De Kock submitting his application for amnesty
• Source 2C reveals many crimes that De Kock had committed and Source 2D shows De Kock with a long list of crimes that he has committed

2.6 [Interpretation, evaluation and synthesis of evidence from relevant sources – L3] Candidates could include the following aspects in their response:

• Lenny Naidu was a member of the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (Source 2A)
• Both parents and brother of Lenny Naidu attended the TRC hearing to seek the truth about the murder (Source 2B)
• The commissioner thanked them for coming forward and making a disclosure (Source 2B)
• The TRC revealed the truth about human rights abuses committed from 1960 to 1994 (Source 2C)
• Leslie Naidu appeared before the TRC to give evidence regarding the murder of Lenny Naidu (Source 2B)
• Eugene De Kock and other former security policemen testified about their role regarding the killings of political activists at Piet Retief (Source 2C)
• The truth of how Lenny Naidu was murdered was revealed to the TRC (Source 2C)
• Eugene De Kock submitted the list of crimes he committed to the TRC (Source 2D)
• De Kock applied for amnesty for the murder of Lenny Naidu (Source 2C)
• The TRC was able to solve some murders and disappearances of political activists such as that of Lenny Naidu (own knowledge)

(8)    [50]

SECTION B: ESSAY QUESTIONS QUESTION 3: CIVIL RESISTANCE, 1970s TO 1980s: SOUTH AFRICA [Plan and construct an original argument based on relevant evidence using analytical and interpretative skills.] SYNOPSIS Candidates should critically discuss the role and impact of the Black Consciousness Movement under Steve Biko on black South Africans in the 1970s. MAIN ASPECTS Candidates should include the following aspects in their response:

• Introduction: Candidates need to take a stance and discuss the role and impact of the Black Consciousness Movement under Steve Biko on black South Africans in the 1970s.

ELABORATION

• Reason for the formation of the Black Consciousness Movement (Background)

Biko’s philosophy of Black Consciousness (BC)

• Conscientised black people of the evils of apartheid
• Instilled a sense of self-worth and confidence in black South Africans
• Restored black pride
• Changed the way black South Africans saw themselves
• Empowered them to confront apartheid
• Biko urged black South Africans to assert themselves and to do things for themselves
• Eliminated the feeling of inferiority

Role of Steve Biko

• Formation of SASO
• SASO spread BC ideas across the campuses of the ethnically separated universities
• SASO promoted black unity and solidarity
• Made students more politically aware
• Encouraging students to liberate themselves from apartheid
• Biko promoted self-liberation
• He believed that association with whites made the liberation struggle ineffective and that blacks must liberate themselves
• Established self-help groups for black communities with other BC leaders
• BC ideas were published in SASO newsletters

Black Consciousness became a national movement

• In 1972 the Black People’s Convention was formed
• Aimed to liberate black people from both psychological and physical oppression
• Self-help projects were set up e.g. Zanempilo Clinic, Ginsburg, and Zimele Trust Fund
• Led to the formation of the Black Allied Workers Union in 1973
• BC influenced scholars that led to the formation of SASM

Challenges posed by the ideas of BC to the state

• At first the South African government was not concerned about the BCM and assumed it to be in line with its own policy of separate development
• BCM became stronger and posed a challenge to the state
• It became a mass movement that sought to undermine apartheid
• Biko’s speeches encouraged black South Africans to reject apartheid
• BC ideas incited the workers to embark on strike action
• BCM supported disinvestment companies

Government’s reaction to Biko’s philosophy

• Banning and house arrest of Biko and other leaders
• BC leaders were banned from speaking in public
• BPC activists were detained without trail
• SASO was banned on university campuses
• Biko was arrested and interrogated
• Biko was brutally murdered by the security police in 1977

Conclusion: Candidates need to tie up their argument with a relevant conclusion. [50]

QUESTION 4: THE COMING OF DEMOCRACY TO SOUTH AFRICA AND COMING TO TERMS WITH THE PAST [Plan and construct an original argument based on relevant evidence using analytical and interpretative skills] SYNOPSIS Candidates need to agree or disagree with the statement by discussing the commitment and leadership displayed by both Mandela and De Klerk that ensured South Africa’s democracy. Relevant examples to South Africa’s road to democracy must be discussed. MAIN ASPECTS Candidates should include the following aspects in their essays:

• Introduction: Candidates need to discuss the commitment and leadership role played by Mandela and De Klerk in creating conditions for South Africa’s road to democracy from 1990 to 1994.

ELABORATION Focus on different role players in the following key historical events and turning points:

• Release of Mandela and unbanning of ANC, PAC and SACP
• The process of negotiations (i.e. Groote Schuur Minute, Pretoria Minute)
• Suspension of the armed struggle
• Record of Understanding
• Increased violence – Rolling mass action (i.e. Boipatong, Bhisho, etc.)
• Goldstone Commission
• Multi party negotiations
• Death of Hani
• Storming of the World Trade Centre, etc.
• 1994 election – cast ballot in KZN
• ANC won elections and Mandela became the first black South African President

QUESTION 5: THE END OF THE COLD WAR AND A NEW WORLD ORDER: THE EVENTS OF 1989 [Plan and construct an original argument based on relevant evidence using analytical and interpretative skills] SYNOPSIS They need to indicate to what extent the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1989 served as a catalyst for South Africa to begin its political transformation in the 1990s. Candidates must support their given line of argument with relevant historical evidence. MAIN ASPECTS Candidates should include the following aspects in their response:

• Introduction: Candidates need to indicate the extent of the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1989 served as a catalyst for the political transformation that occurred in South Africa in the 1990s.

ELABORATION In agreeing, candidates could include the following points in their answer:

• The impact of the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1989 on South Africa
• Gorbachev’s reform policies of Glasnost and Perestroika
• The communist regimes in Eastern Europe collapsed
• The Berlin Wall had fallen
• Changes in the world contributed to the end of apartheid
• The collapse of the USSR deprived the ANC of its main source of support (financial; military and moral and its consequences)
• The National Party claim that it was protecting South Africa from a communist onslaught became unrealistic
• Western world powers supported the move that South Africa resolve its problems peacefully and democratically
• It became evident the National Party government could not maintain white supremacy indefinitely
• Influential National Party members started to realise that apartheid was not the answer to the needs of white capitalist development
• The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale and its consequences
• The security forces and state of emergency had not stopped township revolts
• By the late 1980s South Africa was in a state of economic depression
• The role of business leaders in South Africa’s political transformation
• PW Botha suffered a stroke and was succeeded by FW de Klerk
• FW De Klerk started to accept that the black South African struggle against apartheid was not a conspiracy directed from Moscow
• This enabled De Klerk to engage in discussions with the liberation organisations
• On 2 February 1990, De Klerk announced ‘a new and just constitutional dispensation’
• This signalled the end of apartheid

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Steve Biko: The Black Consciousness Movement

The saso, bcp & bpc years.

By Steve Biko Foundation

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

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

1666/67 University of Natal SRC

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bantu Stephen Biko

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

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

Transcript of a 1972 Interview with Biko

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

Black Student Manifesto

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

SASO's Definition of Black Consciousness

Cover of a 1971 SASO Newsletter

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

Cover of a 1971 SASO Newsletter 

Cover of a 1972 SASO Newsletter

Cover of SASO newsletter, 1973

Cover of a 1975 SASO Newsletter

Steve Biko speaks on BCM

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

BPC Membership Card

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

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

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

SASO/BPC Coverage

Poster from the 1974 Viva Frelimo Rally

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

Barney Pityana, Founding SASO Member

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

Steve Biko's Order Form for Law Textbooks

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

Black Community Programmes Pamphlet 

Overview of the BCP

BCP Head, Ben Khoapa

86 Beatrice Street, Former Headquarters of the BCP 

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

Ben Khoapa, Beatrice Street Circa 2007

Biko's Banning Order

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

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

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

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

Zanempilo Clinic, a BPC Clinic

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

Community Member from Njwaxa

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

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

—Steve Biko Foundation:

Steve Biko: The Inquest

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Mubarak Aliyu

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

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Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

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

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

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

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

The philosophy of Black consciousness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

About the author

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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