The research attempts to understand the role Black Consciousness (BC) plays in the identity of blacks in South Africa by exploring and describing the experience of self-identity in the life-history context of two members of AZAPO, a BC organisation. The literature review explores the work of Biko, Manganyi, and Fanon with a view to understanding whether and how it might be claimed that BC galvanises the black person to discard the crippling fear of colonialism which inflicts feelings of inferiority, and to rise up to claim his/her rightful place in community life. To explore the philosophical assumptions made in the literature review, a qualitative study was conducted. Interviews were conducted with two black adults who have adopted BC philosophy. Three separate in-depth phenomenological interviews were conducted which yielded a description of the experiences of each respondent. A tape recorder was used to record the interviews and they were transcribed for analysis. A thematic analysis was conducted using the reading guide method. The material was thematised using the following questions: What biographical factors are seen as being important prior to the respondent becoming black conscious? How did the participant come to realise his/her self-identity as problematic? How did the process of adopting BC change the participant’s selfidentity? The results indicate that participants became aware very early in their lives and prior to adopting BC, that their own supportive and cohesive family cultures were at odds with the surrounding social context. Early experiences of this were initially unintelligible but impressionable. BC in this sense provided a framework for understanding and engaging with these experiences. The study shows that the adoption of BC helped to make sense of experiences of community isolation, discrimination, oppression and provided them with a mode of engaging practically with these issues. It was not adopted from a perspective of poor self-esteem or other such purely personal characteristics which may have been expected on the basis of literature in the area. BC was adopted as a way of understanding the relationship between their communities or backgrounds and the broader social environment and if there was a ‘healing’ project it was at this level.However, the study did show the close relationship between individual and social well-being that emerged as intrinsic both to the philosophy of BC and the lives of these individuals. This was shown to play out in the commitment of these individuals to the development of black communities and in their tying of their own destinies to the destiny of the oppressed black people in general. These and other issues which emerged in the two case studies are discussed in relation to the literature in the area.

The Brazilian government has recently enacted some of Latin America's most extensive affirmative action laws and policies, including racial quotas in all public universities and a law that requires schools throughout Brazil to teach Afro-Brazilian history and culture. In this context, a large-scale black consciousness movement has emerged, with a vast array of black organizations (otherwise known as "Black NGOs") using race as a productive political strategy to secure access to resources and rights for people of African descent. Through yearlong ethnographic investigations of three of these organizations in the city of Salvador (Bahia) from 2009-2010, this dissertation examines the effects of such changes on black activists' interpretations of blackness and their understanding of black consciousness. It looks to the complex ways in which black activists are creatively juxtaposing Brazil's long-held racial ideologies on the one hand with discourses and forms of knowledge about race that have been set forth by the new race-conscious legislations and policies on the other. Drawing from and contributing to the field of linguistic anthropology, I demonstrate that language is crucial to their goals of revealing patterns of institutional racism, critiquing commonsense notions of blackness in Brazil, and promoting anti-racism. I show how black activists teach one another elaborate ways of using language to scrutinize deeply entrenched ideas about race and blackness embedded in their own and others' speech as well as new ways of thinking and talking about race in Brazil. The dissertation carries throughout a concern with the status and formation of black consciousness in light of recent cultural and political changes. Drawing on my training in linguistic and cultural anthropology, I combine the analysis of data from participant observations, in-depth interviews, and countless conversations with black activists to examine what I call "affirmative language practices"--linguistic strategies that black activists use to foreground multiple points of views about race and blackness within Brazil's dominant frameworks of racial identification and categorization. I employ the notions of voice, dialogism, participant roles, and intertextuality (explored in the work of Mikhail Bakhtin, Erving Goffman, Jane Hill, and others) to provide evidence that black activists do not require or privilege black identity in the construction of "black consciousness." I argue that for these black activists, black consciousness may be characterized by the emergence of an ideological critique in and through language that allows Afro-Brazilians to articulate competing ideological positions about race and racism in Brazil.

The Black Consciousness philosophy with its focus on black solidarity, the exclusion of whites from the black struggle for liberation, being consciously black and black self-determination, amongst some of the principles espoused by the Black Consciousness philosophy may prima-facie seem to be advocating a parochial politics of race or even a racially exclusionist politics obsessed with cultural authenticity and racial peculiarity. Black Consciousness from such an optic may seem to be more in line with other race centred systems such as apartheid based on white superiority as opposed to a politics that rejects a race centred approach to political life. Certain readings of Black Consciousness reflect the philosophy as espousing a more regressive as opposed to a progressive liberatory politics. Furthermore, Black Consciousness with its focus on race its critics will argue is not in line with a politics of non-racialism which seeks a total rejection of race. However, such an understanding of non-racialism is a very limited and unsophisticated one as it entails a rejection of race without first engaging with the concrete reality of race, while also assuming that a rejection of race entails integration. Indeed, it may be a great goal to attain a society in which race does not matter and in which it is not a determining factor in the life of any individual. Yet, to not see race when race has had and continues to have a profound impact on South African society, especially the poor black majority, may serve to be more regressive than progressive. In a society where inequality manifests along racial lines a hastily sought integration may not serve to attain the desired outcome of a genuine non-racial society. Equality thus becomes a central perquisite to make possible the attainment of a non-racial society unhindered by the limitations of white superiority and black inferiority. With the persistence of inequality accompanied by white domination and acquiescing blacks a non-racial society will serve to be an illusion. Biko, through his articulation of the Black Consciousness philosophy sought the attainment of a radical egalitarianism; this from the Black Consciousness optic being the condition upon which a non-racial politics and society could be forged. Black Consciousness has the ability to create a truly non-racial subject, its sophisticated conception of race which conceives of race as being consciously contrived can serve to illustrate the implicit non-racial outlook of the Black Consciousness philosophy. Through the project of Black Consciousness the end goal could indeed be perceived as being a radical egalitarian non-racial society. The overall tenor is that Black Consciousness complements non-racialism more than it contradicts it.

Ph. D., Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, 1993

Magister Artium - MA / This study was initiated, in the first place, by the dearth of analyses available on black consciousness in South Africa. The studies that do exist are usually to be found i~ the form of a chapter or two in a work on general black protest politics. This leaves virtually no room for a detailed analysis of the philosophy, and consequently, a few quotes by Biko, followed by general comment constitutes the most frequent form of "analysis". No theoretical framework is given and neither are the logical sequences in Biko's work analysed. This dissertation sets out to make a contribution to the existing academic analyses of black consciousness. In attempting to do this, various obstacles have had to be overcome.The most important obstacle has been the assertion that the black consciousness philosophy ostensibly precludes itself from objective analysis by whites. Consequently, the author has endeavoured to evaluate the philosophy from a theoretical framework which has been compiled from elements which characterise black consciousness ideal approach of black consciousness to society.as. This implies that any subjective inclinations which the author may have, are largely blocked from detracting from the essence of the. The theoretical framework according to which black consciousness is analysed is a IImode'" of a revolutionary philosophy.

Le système d'apartheid en Afrique du Sud, de 1948 à 1992, a notamment eu pour méthode et objectif la négation totale voire l'anéantissement de la parole de la population noire. Cette caractéristique inhérente à tout système d'oppression s'est imposée violemment en Afrique du Sud par l'institutionnalisation implacable d'un système raciste fondé sur l'exploitation de la population noire. A cette violence a répondu une résistance qui, sous diverses formes (action politique et syndicale, arts, parmi lesquels la littérature), a lutté pendant plusieurs décennies pour reconstruire une identité noire, participer à l'écriture de l'histoire et établir les fondements d'un état démocratique. La poésie s'est particulièrement manifestée, à partir des années 1960-1970, comme une force de résistance et de combat propre à créer puis animer une volonté collective de détruire les structures d'oppression. La prise de parole par les poètes, s'appuyant notamment sur les modes de l'oralité, a pu poser les enjeux cruciaux des rapports entre poétique et politique. Le mouvement de la Black Consciousness s'est donc aussi structuré dans et par une parole poétique qui a su s'emparer de la langue, des mots et des choses dans un processus dialogique. Cette dynamique ne s'est pas arrêtée lors de la transition politique de l'Afrique du Sud. Au contraire, les voix poétiques sud-africaines demeurent aujourd'hui une force disruptive et constructive à la fois, et s'affirment comme les acteurs essentiels de la déconstruction et de la production des discours de la nouvelle Afrique du Sud. A la lumière notamment des oeuvres de Frantz Fanon, il s'agit de définir des outils d'analyse et de compréhension d'une poésie qui s'est voulue pratique et expérience dans une perspective humaniste où le langage occupe une place essentielle. / From 1948 to 1992, the apartheid system in South Africa aimed at systematically denying or even destroying the black population's speech. As a parameter of any oppressive system, the denial of speech was violently and ruthlessly enforced through an institutionalised racist system based on the exploitation of the black population. A resistance movement, therefore, took shape in political movements, unions, and arts, among which literature, and fought for decades to rebuild a black identity, to take part into the writing of history and to establish the foundations of a democratic state. During the 1960s and 1970s, poetry became a considerable force of resistance and struggle, whose aim was to create and sustain the collective will to pull down the structures of oppression. The seizure of speech by poets who recycled the techniques of oral literatures allowed the identification of the crucial relationships between poetics and politics. The Black Consciousness movement was thus structured in and by a poetic speech that appropriated language, words and things through a dialogical process. In spite of major political changes, that dynamics continued during South Africa's political transition, and the poetic voices in contemporary South Africa remain a force that is both disruptive and constructive. It is therefore necessary to define and develop tools for the analysis of the Black Consciousness poetry; the works of Frantz Fanon will prove enlightening in the understanding of a poetry which was a practice and an experiment, fighting for a humanistic perspective based on language.

Magister Educationis - MEd / Ideology reveals itself in the commonly shared ideas and ideals which act as the driving force responsible for group formation underlying nationalist aspirations in society. It reveals itself in various ways with politics as the most visible and education as the most powerful, yet unobtrusive, manifestation. In South Africa Afrikaner Nationalism and Black Nationalism have been involved in a titanic battle for the last fifty years. The ideology of Afrikaner Nationalism developed as a striving for political, cultural and educational freedom from British imperialist domination. An important part of this struggle was waged in the field of education, leading to the development of the sub-ideology of Christian National Education. The tenacity with which the Afrikaner pursued his nationalist aspirations was rewarded with the recognition of Afrikaans as official language in 1925, the National Party gaining political power in 1948 and the establishment of the Afrikaner educational ideology, Christian National Education, as state education policy in 1967. The Afrikaner Broederbond, under the cover of an Afrikaner cultural society, exercised a tremendously strong influence in the political, economic and social spheres. With the support of the extremely influential Dutch Reformed Church hegemonic rule was further consolidated. In order to attain its ideals and maintain its position of power, Afrikanerdom engaged in suppressing the Black sector of the population. This manifested in the denial of political and human rights to Blacks, and was reinforced by an education system which offered Blacks inferior education to that of Whites to ensure that they would not become a threat to Afrikaner power. The Afrikaner Broederbond, under the cover of an Afrikaner cultural society, exercised a tremendously strong influence in the political, economic and social spheres. With the support of the extremely influential Dutch Reformed Church hegemonic rule was further consolidated. In order to attain its ideals and maintain its position of power, Afrikanerdom engaged in suppressing the Black sector of the population. This manifested in the denial of political and human rights to Blacks, and was reinforced by an education system which offered Blacks inferior education to that of Whites to ensure that they would not become a threat to Afrikaner power tendency towards communalism in Black society resulted in Black Nationalism adopting the ideology of Black Liberation Socialism, under whose banner many former colonies had attained independence from their European mother countries. The educational sub ideology of People's Education served the Black Nationalist ideal by adopting in its curricula, syllabi and organisational structure an approach which supported Black liberation from the apartheid regime. The South African state (government, the police, the legal system, etc.) acted in a repressive manner under the influence of the Afrikaner ideology. The oppression Afrikaners suffered at the hand of British imperialism was repeated when Afrikaner Nationalism assumed power under the Nationalist government. It subjected Blacks to oppression and totally negated Black nationalist aspirations. Education always serves the dominant ideology - a concept clearly manifested in Christian National Education as it served the Afrikaner Nationalist ideology. In the same manner People's Education proved to be an extension of the Black Liberation Struggle. Ideology is thus in the service of power. Ample evidence exists that Afrikaner Nationalism and Christian National Education served to entrench Afrikanerdom in a position of seemingly unassailable power for an extended period of time after it had discarded the British imperialist yoke. This dominant position was maintained despite being a minority group. Should the same pattern prevail one would expect the African National Congress to abuse its present position of power to oppress the White minority and take revenge for the suffering that the latter had inflicted on Blacks for so many years. Both the Oppressed and the Oppressor are dehumanised in the process of oppression. Although the Afrikaner was in a dominant, powerful position and seemingly free, he became enslaved to his own ideology. He was deprived of independent opinion and thought by the prescriptive ideology of Afrikaner Nationalism and its educational ideology of Christian National Education. Non-compliance was frowned upon and deviants ostracised. It is ironic that, by ousting the Afrikaner nationalist regime, the African National Congress actually became the agent which liberated the Afrikaner from his self inflicted ideological oppression. Oppression thus seems to follow a vicious circle with both the Oppressor and the Oppressed suffering dehumanisation. Unless the Oppressed is rehumanised the oppressive role model presented by the Oppressor is emulated and the former Oppressed become the new Oppressor. The necessity for the process of rehumanisation to occur in the postapartheid South African society can not be over-emphasised and thus various steps that can be taken to effect rehumanisation are suggested.

Magister Educationis - MEd / There is a continual reaction to educational systems by other social groupings. To a large extend education is determined by persons other than educationalists. The social context has a definite influence on a system of education. In South Africa the different political groupings are reacting to the present educational system. These political groupings each has different political aspirations and expectations. As political aspirations relate closely to educational aspirations, it follows that these political groupings will have different educational aspirations. The political groupings recently exerting the most influence in the educational field in South Africa have been the National Party (NP), the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Azanian People's Organization (AZAPO). In this research attention is given to the role and influence of these groupings, their educational aspirations, and the degree to which their aspirations are educationally sound. At the outset an attempt is made to determine certain criteria for an educational justifiable educational system. These criteria are used throughout as the standard in terms of which the different aspirations are evaluated. Thereafter each of the groups, the NP, the UDF and AZAPO, is examined individually. To ascertain the educational aspirations of each in the correct perspective, the role each of these groups plays in the educational the political arena is examined. Subsequently aims resulting from the political aims are examined. An extensive literary study was undertaken to inform the research. As education is very topical at present, newspaper reports, magazine and journal articles, as well as relevant research reports and other primary sources have been used in the study. Finally the conclusion is reached that each of the educational aspirations has its strengths and deficiencies and an attempt is made to set a vision for the future.

This study contemplates the development of a South African critical race theory (CRT) with reference to the thought of Steve Biko. From a long view, the aim of this research is to bring the insights of the Black Radical Tradition to bear on the study of law and jurisprudence with particular focus on the problem of “post-­apartheid South Africa”. Working from the scene of the “afterlife” of colonial-­apartheid and situated at the intersection of critical race theory (CRT) and Black Consciousness (BC), this study aims to develop an alternative approach to law and jurisprudence that could respond to the persistence of race and racism as the deep and fundamental fault-­lines of post-­1994 South Africa. The transition to a “new” South Africa, undergirded by the discourses of human rights, nation-­building and reconciliation and underwritten by a liberal and Western constitution followed a path of change and transformation which has resulted in the reproduction of colonial-­apartheid power relations. Settler-­colonial white supremacy as both a structure of power and a symbolic order continues to determine, shape and organise the South African socio-­economic, cultural, political, psychic and juridical landscape. This foregoing problem has remained largely unthought in the South African legal academy and therefore this research takes up the task of recalling the thought, memory and politics of Steve Biko in search of a critical and liberatory perspective that could counter dominant theoretical and jurisprudential accounts of the past and present. The study therefore explores Biko’s historical interpretation of the South African reality and his theorisation of concepts such race, identity and liberation and retrieves these in order to critique and contest both post-­1994 law, society and jurisprudence as well as the faulty epistemological, historical, and ideological terms on which they are based. In the end, the study proposes to read Biko’s thought as standing in the guise of a jurisprudence of liberation or post-­conquest jurisprudence which unsettles the very foundations of “post”-­apartheid law and reason. / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Jurisprudence / DPhil / Unrestricted

Thesis (M.A. (English Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2020 / This mini dissertation examines the influence of the Black Consciousness Philosophy on Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali’s Post-Colonial protest poetry. This is done in the form of analysing selected poems to highlight the influence that the Black Consciousness Philosophy had on the poems that Mtshali wrote about the experiences of black people under a suppressive apartheid system. The aim of this study was to explore how Mtshali’s poetry exposed the extent to which black people had been socio-economically deprived and misled to a negative and false belief of their inferiority and subservience. The title of the mini dissertation, suggests that Black Consciousness poetry claims to have had an influence on the protest poetry of Oswald Mtshali. The poems were analysed to ascertain this. The poems were examined with the express aim of identifying and understanding their themes and the socio-economic context from which they emanate.