Summary IEB/NSC - History - Civil Resistance in South Africa 1970s -1980s
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Module
History
Institution
12th Grade
This document covers the following concepts:
What was the nature of the civil society resistance in the 1970s and 1980s?
• What was the nature of the Apartheid state from 1964 to the 1970s? [NOT EXAMINABLE]
A brief understanding of how the Apartheid State had crushed opposition but early 197...
Civil Resistance in South Africa
Steve Biko and Black Consciousness Movement
Steve Biko Timeline
● Born 1946
● Medical student at University of Natal (Non- European)
● Member of NUSAS, (while dominated, multi - racial organisation for students).
● 1968 broke away from NUSAS to form SASO
● SASO spread Black Consciousness thinking throughout ‘Black; universities
● Biko spreads philosophy to other areas
● 1973 Banned by South African Government
● 1977 Murdered while in Detention
● American singer Peter Gabriel wrote a tribute to Biko - song makes Biko even more well-known.
● Instead of silencing him , the SA government had turned him into a martyr
Why did the Government fear someone who was talking about keeping races apart?
● Biko created Mass Movement - which went against whole Aparthied idea of 'Divide and Rule’
● Biko encouraged ‘blacks’ to take a stand aganist Apartheid
● He encouraged strike action and gave workers a sense of their own power.
● He encouraged disinvestment.
● He helped build Black solidarity
Black Consciousness:
● ‘‘Black’ included any of the oppressed (Indian and Coloured)
● Was a philosophy, an attitude and way of life
● It aimed to conscientise black South Africans and instil in them the sense of self-worth and dignity, which the
Aparthied had systematically destroyed.
● Encouraged black self-reliance -economic reliance and self reliance in black people achieving their own
liberation
● Creating pride in Black African heritage and culture.
The spread of Black Consciousness
1972 Black People Convention - an umbrella for Black Consciousness groups. Its aim was to involve adults in the
movement, to help break the silence and hopelessness of the 60s. Self-help projects established:
- Zanempilo Community Health clinic under Dr. Mamphele
- Mhloti Black Theatre, promoting black culture
- Njwaxa Leatherworks Project
- Zimele Trust Fund support political prisoners and their families
1972 Black Allied Workers Union
Encouraged workers on whom the SA economy relied, take a stand in their Own Future and well-being. encouraged
strike action. started the ‘Buy Black Campaign ‘ and helped build solidarity among workers
High school students: Ideas filtered down into the High Schools. this would be a major Factor in the 1976 Soweto
Uprising
Helpful mnemonic
Causes of Soweto Uprising
All students begin to object
● The constant hardship of life under the Aparthied Regime
● Life in the overcrowded and under resourced township of Soweto
● Inferiority and humiliation of Bantu education
● Growing Trade Union action
● 1973 Drop in oil prices pushed prices up in South Africa - life becomes even harder for the poor.
● Philosophy of BCM
Immediate cause
Afrikaans introduced as medium of instruction:
● Children were now expected to learn in a language with which they were even less familiar than english
● Pass rates of 1975 show that hope of actually achieving a Matric becomes even more distant.
● Afrikaans was the language of the oppressor.
, 2
16 June 1976
● Police fire into a crowd of protesting, unarmed, largely peaceful students.
● Hastings Ndlovu and Hector Pietersen killed.
● Soweto erupts in violence
● Violence spreads to other townships
Results and significance
School students riot and make many ripples.
● Shocks the international world - Photography: coverage of police violence.
● Beginning of embargoes and sanctions against South Africa
● Government forced to reverse Afrikaans policy
● Adults inspired by children's determination and courage. Step back into activism.
● 1980s becomes decade of mass protest
● 12 000 leave South Africa to train in MK or Poqo training camps
● The size of the threat is seen in the government's reaction. Government ban all BCM organisations, SASO,
SASM. BPA and SSRC.
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