ARH 3701
ASSIGNMENT 1 (BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS THEME CHOSEN)
SEMESTER 2022
UNISA
, Black Consciousness
A wide range of concepts fall under the umbrella term "black consciousness,"
(Encyclopedia.com) including race consciousness, race relations, black pride, black
power, and even rebellion and revolutionary consciousness as they relate to
historically oppressed communities, nations, or groups acting and reacting against
their oppression (Encyclopedia.com).
A significant student movement throughout the 1970s in South Africa during the
Apartheid era was the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) (Thompsell 2019).
When the African National Congress and the Pan-Africanist Congress were both
outlawed following the Sharpeville Massacre, the Black Consciousness Movement
developed a new identity and politics of racial solidarity and served as the
movement's voice and inspiration (Thompsell 2019). The Soweto Student Uprising of
1976 was the BCM's pinnacle, but it afterwards swiftly went into decline (Thompsell
2019).
When black students left the multiracial but white-dominated National Union of South
African Students in 1969 to create the South African Students Organisation, the
Black Consciousness Movement was born (SASO). Students who were classed as
African, Indian, or Coloured under Apartheid Law were welcome to join the SASO,
which was an openly non-white organisation (Thompsell 2019). The SASO led a
movement that went well beyond students in order to unite non-white students and
give voice to their complaints (Thompsell 2019). The Black People's Convention
(BPC) was founded by the leaders of this Black Consciousness Movement in 1972,
three years later, in an effort to mobilise adults and non-students (Thompsell 2019).
Aims and Forerunners of the Black Consciousness
In a broad sense, the BCM sought to unite and elevate non-white people, but doing
so required eliminating former allies, liberal anti-apartheid whites (Thompsell 2019).
When militant nationalists claimed that white people had no place in South Africa, as
explained by Steve Biko, the most well-known member of the Black Consciousness
movement, they actually meant that they wanted to "remove [the white man] from our
ASSIGNMENT 1 (BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS THEME CHOSEN)
SEMESTER 2022
UNISA
, Black Consciousness
A wide range of concepts fall under the umbrella term "black consciousness,"
(Encyclopedia.com) including race consciousness, race relations, black pride, black
power, and even rebellion and revolutionary consciousness as they relate to
historically oppressed communities, nations, or groups acting and reacting against
their oppression (Encyclopedia.com).
A significant student movement throughout the 1970s in South Africa during the
Apartheid era was the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) (Thompsell 2019).
When the African National Congress and the Pan-Africanist Congress were both
outlawed following the Sharpeville Massacre, the Black Consciousness Movement
developed a new identity and politics of racial solidarity and served as the
movement's voice and inspiration (Thompsell 2019). The Soweto Student Uprising of
1976 was the BCM's pinnacle, but it afterwards swiftly went into decline (Thompsell
2019).
When black students left the multiracial but white-dominated National Union of South
African Students in 1969 to create the South African Students Organisation, the
Black Consciousness Movement was born (SASO). Students who were classed as
African, Indian, or Coloured under Apartheid Law were welcome to join the SASO,
which was an openly non-white organisation (Thompsell 2019). The SASO led a
movement that went well beyond students in order to unite non-white students and
give voice to their complaints (Thompsell 2019). The Black People's Convention
(BPC) was founded by the leaders of this Black Consciousness Movement in 1972,
three years later, in an effort to mobilise adults and non-students (Thompsell 2019).
Aims and Forerunners of the Black Consciousness
In a broad sense, the BCM sought to unite and elevate non-white people, but doing
so required eliminating former allies, liberal anti-apartheid whites (Thompsell 2019).
When militant nationalists claimed that white people had no place in South Africa, as
explained by Steve Biko, the most well-known member of the Black Consciousness
movement, they actually meant that they wanted to "remove [the white man] from our
