4. The Nature and aims of Black consciousness

Question 1

Who began to organise resistance within South Africa?

Answer 1

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a new generation of black students began to organise resistance within South Africa.

Question 2

Which institutions did the Black students attend?

Answer 2

Many of them were students at the bush colleges established for black students under the system of Bantu Education, such as the University of Zululand and the University of the North.

Question 3

True or false, they adopted a set of ideas, known as Black Consciousness.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

It was an attitude of ____ rather than political movement, The use of the term “____” was a direct challenge to the apartheid term ‘_______’. The movement defined black people as all those who were oppressed by apartheid, including _____ and _______ people. In this way, it promoted a new unified _______.

Answer 4

mind
black
non-white
Indian
Coloured 
identity

Question 5

What were the main aims of Black Consciousness?

Answer 5

• to raise the self-respect and confidence of black people to liberate themselves.
• to promote pride in black identity, culture and history.
• to stop working with white liberals in multi-racial organisations, but to encourage them to educate other white people to change their attitudes.
• to promote unity amongst black people by mobilising them to fight against apartheid, in particular against the divisions caused by separate development.

Question 6

What did these views/aims echo?

Answer 6

Many of these ideas echoed the views of the Africanist and PAC traditions of the 1950s, which had stressed that South Africa belonged to black people alone.

Question 7

From what event can similarities and comparisons be drawn to what was happening in South Africa?

Answer 7

There were also similarities with Black Power in the USA at the time, which stressed the idea of black assertiveness.

Question 8

Which context and group of people did the Black Consciousness movement develop from?

Answer 8

The Black Consciousness movement developed in the

context of the international youth revolt of the late 1960s, and most of its supporters were students.

Question 9

What were two things that encouraged the Black consciousness movement? (2)

Answer 9

• It was encouraged, too, by the granting of independence to African colonies and growing international criticism of South Africa.
• The followers of Black Consciousness were also influenced by the ideas of new leaders in independent Africa, such as Kwame Nkrumah (in Ghana), Julius Nyerere (in Tanzania) and Kenneth Kaunda (in Zambia).

Question 10

What was the driving force behind Black consciousness in South Africa?

Answer 10

The driving force behind Black Consciousness was the South African Students Organisation (SASO), established in 1968 under the leadership of Steve Biko.