Black Consciousness Movement

Black Consciousness Movement (BCM), South African anti-apartheid movement that began in the late 1960s. Originating on university campuses, it espoused Black cultural pride and political solidarity while firmly denouncing white liberal inactivity. Though the movement began to decline after the Soweto Uprising in 1976, it left an enduring impression on resistance to apartheid in South Africa and ideas of Black identity and cultural worth across the globe.

Following the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, the South African government essentially outlawed the two major Black organizations in the country, the Pan-Africanist Congress and the African National Congress. In the absence of these two groups, Black resistance began to take a new path. The origins of Black consciousness lie in the university student organizations of the mid-1960s, wherein activists like Steve Biko—who would later become the movement’s de facto leader—began to grow disillusioned with conventional organizing. Biko had initially been part of the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) while he was a student at the Black medical school of the University of Natal. NUSAS, though anti-apartheid, was dominated by white students, which Biko viewed as an obstacle.

In an attempt to organize more radical anti-government activism, Biko and his comrades also joined the University Christian Movement (UCM), which was formed in 1967. They remained dissatisfied with the scope of the UCM’s goals, however. Convinced that a nonwhite caucus was necessary, they founded the South African Students’ Organization (SASO), which was launched in 1969. SASO welcomed all students classified by the South African government as Black African (Bantu), Coloured, or Indian into the group. The Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa was born in SASO.

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Black consciousness, as defined by Biko, was the awakening of self-worth in Black populations. The movement’s leaders hoped to redefine “Black,” recognizing that the term was no longer a simple racial classification but a positive, unifying identity. Black consciousness meant recognizing one’s inherent dignity and taking pride in it. The movement borrowed heavily from the writings of W.E.B. Du Bois, who had first introduced the idea of a Black “double consciousness.” Du Bois argued that Blacks are forced by white hegemonies to reckon with opposing identities: the internal (how one views oneself) and the external (how one is viewed by an oppressive society). The BCM sought to do away with the latter identity and replace it entirely with the former.

Proponents of Black consciousness sought to remove whites from their political platform. Former white allies were denounced by SASO members as ineffectual liberals, who, when true equality was at hand, would balk, opting to protect their own status. Black liberation, they argued, had to come from within. Once achieved, whites would be able to participate once again.

The movement, with the charismatic Biko as its leader, made clear gains in the political landscape as SASO spread its ideas of Black pride and self-worth far beyond the bounds of university organizations. In 1972 the Black People’s Convention (BPC) was launched with the hopes of extending the BCM’s philosophical message to workers’ unions. The BPC organized a series of widespread and successful strikes in its first years. It grew rapidly, bringing Black consciousness to the political forefront.

The BCM’s increased power frightened the white supremacist government, which cracked down on Black organizing. Biko was officially censured in 1973 and police began to show up to BCM gatherings in force. In 1974 the BCM and BPC staged massive rallies in support of the newly formed Frelimo government in neighboring Mozambique, which had just successfully challenged the Portuguese colonial regime. These rallies led to several clashes with police. Consequently, several members of both the BCM and BPC were arrested and charged with fomenting unrest. Upon their convictions, however, the movement only grew.

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BCM philosophy influenced the organization of the Soweto Uprising in 1976, which began as a massive student-led rally. Though initially a protest against Black students being forced to learn Afrikaans in school, it evolved into a general challenge to the apartheid government. The police and army responded to the uprising with brutal force. Officially, the death toll from the uprising stood at 575 people, many of them children, but the actual casualty numbers are thought to be higher. In response, protests broke out across South Africa; they were similarly quashed.

In the aftermath of the Soweto Uprising, the government arrested and tortured or killed many of the BCM’s leaders, including Biko, who died in September 1977 from a brain hemorrhage after police shackled and beat him. The government banned several Black organizations, including the BPC, the next month, making it difficult for members to meet. While the BCM may have fragmented and declined in organizing power after the Soweto Uprising and Biko’s death, its ideas remained. Biko and the BCM are hailed as forerunners of the resistance movement that eventually brought down apartheid.