The Role of Black Consciousness in '76 Soweto Uprising


By Katlego Mereko

Many scholars and critics still erroneously hold the view that the 1976 uprisings were virtually spontaneous if insufficiently coordinated events that lacked the support and therefore the ‘maturity’ of adults in the communities. However, what we know of the Black Consciousness Movement’s (BCM) involvement in the high school students-led South African Students Movement (SASM) through the South African Students Organisation (SASO) paints a different picture.

The narrative that the pupils sought little to no community engagement is so prevalent such that it is still taught in at least one (but potentially more) university in the subject of educational philosophy & history.

The involvement of the BCM in SASM came about in the early 70s when SASO began to direct energies to high school pupils, especially in their community leadership programs. This coincided with the black student boycotts of 1972-74 against Bantu Education as sparked by BC and SASO leader Onkgopotse Tiro’s infamous speech which led to his expulsion from the University of the North (now University of Limpopo). Tiro would subsequently find employment as a teacher at Morris Isaacson High School in Soweto, where he mentored many young leaders who would be part of the Uprisings in 76, including Tsietsi Mashinini.

The BCM was a movement heavily predicated on community work. They believed in the upliftment of the oppressed (black) communities and saw education as critical to the achievement of this task. It is therefore unlikely that a Black Consciousness-imbued SASM failed at the fundamental task of involving the community. Per contra, this was one of the bases for the gains of their protests.

It is in fact recorded that of several engagements between students and the community of which they’re part, the pupils called for parents to stay away from work as the protests were “more than a march,” one Sibongile Mkhabela of the Soweto Student Representative council said. “This was the day to hit the white economy.”



This end is reminiscent of one of the goals of the 1960 Positive Action Campaign protests led by the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) of Azania, which led to the Sharpeville massacre. Tragically, the 76 protests culminated in similar brutality that saw school children ruthlessly scuppered by apartheid police.

Of course, the children’s protests were about more than just the Afrikaans Medium Decree of 1974, but a repudiation of Bantu Education and its regressive and oppressive ideology, which finds its basis in the unjust conquest of the indigenous peoples and the theft of their land by European colonisers and their posterity. Thus, the protests were a matter transcending the narrow prism of scholarly importance to affect the whole community, and the pupils were well aware of this thanks to Black Consciousness.

Perhaps the most compelling piece of evidence that exhibits the strong emphasis on student-community relations is the Black Student Manifesto drafted by SASO in the early 70s.

We, the Black Students of South Africa,’ it reads. ‘…are an integral part of the Black oppressed Community before we are Students coming out of and studying under the oppressive restrictions of a racist education

[We] are committed to work towards the building of our people and to the winning of the struggle for liberation and guided by the central purpose of service to the Black Community on every technical and social level.’

We therefore reject the whole sphere of racist education and commit ourselves to the intellectual and physical development of our community and to the realisation of liberation for Black peoples of South Africa.’

We hereby [also] commit to encourage and promote Black Literature relevant to our struggle and ensure that our education will further the preservation and promotion of what is measured in our culture and our historical experience.’

The BCM’s track record in terms of work done in the community also speaks for itself through the Black Community Programs (BCP) that also started around 1972. It thus cannot be said that the Black Conscious-adhering student leaders of 1976 neglected this fundamental principle most assuredly driven into them by their Black Conscious mentors.

The role of Black consciousness and The 76 Uprisings indeed remains relevant in the face of curriculum still found wanting in South African Education, especially in the fields or subjects of history and philosophy in both secondary and tertiary level education. 

-JP

Article Tags

Black Consciousness Movement

1976 Uprising

Tsietsi Mashinini

Bantu Biko

Onkgopotse Tiro

Apartheid

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