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I
Write What I Like: Selected Writings. University of Chicago
Press, 2002 /
The Testimony of Steve Biko. HarperCollins, 1984 /
Donald Woods,
Biko. Henry Holt & Co., 1991 /
Black Consciousness in South Africa. Vintage , 1979
* * * * *
Biko
Speaks on Africans
Their Sufferings & Black
Consciousness
Black Consciousness & Singularity
of Purpose
By Black Consciousness I mean the cultural
and political revival of an oppressed people. This must be
related to the emancipation of the entire continent of Africa
since the Second World War. Africa has experienced the death of
white invincibility. Before that we were conscious mainly of two
classes of people, the white conquerors and the black conquered.
The black in Africa now know that the whites will not be
conquerors forever.
I must emphasize the cultural depth of Black
Consciousness. The recognition of the death of white
invincibility forces blacks to ask the question: "Who am I?
Who are we?" And the fundamental answer we give is this:
"People are people!" so "black"
Consciousness says: "Forget about the color!" But the
reality we faced ten to fifteen years ago did not allow us to
articulate this. After all, the continent was in a period of
rapid decolonization, which implied a challenge to black
inferiority all over Africa.
This challenge was shared by white liberals.
So for quite some time the white liberals acted as the spokesmen
for the blacks. But then some of us began to ask ourselves:
"Can our liberal trustees put themselves in our
place?" Our answer was twofold: "No! They
cannot." And: "As long as the white liberals are our
spokesmen, there will be no black spokesmen." It is not
possible to have black spokesmen in a white context.
This was realized readily in many black
countries outside of South Africa. But what did we have here?
The society as a whole was divided into white and black groups.
This forced division had to disappear, and many nonracist groups
worked toward that end. But almost every nonracist group was
still largely white, notably so in the student world. thus here
we were confronted with the same shortcoming: the context of
getting rid of white-black tensions was still a white context.
So we realize that blacks themselves had to
speak out about the black predicament. We could no longer depend
upon whites answering the question: "Who are we?"
There had to be a singularity of purpose in that answer.
the white trustees would always be mixed in purpose.
Black Consciousness & Western
Christianity
I grew up in the Anglican church, so this
matter is an important one for me. But it is a troublesome
question, for in South Africa, Christianity for most people is
purely a formal matter. We as blacks cannot forget the fact that
Christianity in Africa is tied up with the entire colonial
process. This meant that Christian came here with a form of
culture which they called Christian but which in effect was
Western, and which expressed itself as an imperial culture as
far as Africa was concerned.
Here the missionaries did not make the proper
distinctions. This important matter can easily be illustrated by
relatively small things. Take the question of dress, for
example. When an African became Christian, as a rule he or she
was expected to drop traditional garb and dress like a
Westerner. The same with many customs dear to blacks, which they
were expected to drop for supposed "Christian" reasons
while in effect they were only in conflict with certain Western
mores.
Moreover, although the social hierarchy
within the church was a white/black hierarchy, the sharing of
responsibility for church affairs was exclusively white. This
meant that the nature especially of the mainline churches was
hardly influenced by black fact. It cannot be denied that in
this situation many blacks, especially the young blacks, have
begun to question Christianity. the question they ask is whether
the necessary decolonization of Africa also requires the de-Christianization
of Africa.
The most positive facet of this questioning
is the development of "black" theology does not
challenge Christianity itself but its Western package, in order
to discover what the Christian faith means for our continent.
Black Consciousness & Black People's
Convention
In the 1960s, the African Congress had been
banned, so the main realities we were confronted with were the
power of the police and the leftist noises of the white
liberals. Faced with these realities, we had to solve the
question of how a new consciousness could take hold of the
people.
The government controlled the schools. There
was a low output from the schools as far as Black Consciousness
was concerned. We knew we had to seek for participation among
the intelligentsia. But we also knew that the intelligentsia
tend to look upon the masses as tools to be manipulated by them,
so the change of consciousness among graduates of the black
universities that we sought focused on an identification of
intellectuals with the needs of the black community.
Here lies the origin of SASO--the South
African Student Organization. It challenged the injustice of the
existing structures, but it did this in a new way. As a matter
of fact, since we stressed Black Consciousness and the
relation of the intellectuals with the real needs of the black
community, we were at first regarded as supporters of the
System. The liberals criticized us and the conservatives
supported us. But this did not last very long. It took the
government four years to take measures against us. Even today we
are still accused of racism. This is a mistake.
We know that all interracial groups in South
Africa are relationships in which whites are superior, blacks
inferior. So, as a prelude, whites must be made to realize that
they are only human, not superior. Same with blacks. They must
be made to realize that they are also human, not inferior. For
all of us this means that South Africa is not European, but
African.
Gradually this began to make sense. Black
Consciousness gained momentum, but we were still faced with the
practical issue that the people who were speaking were mainly
students and graduates. There was no broad debate. For this
reason we had to move from SASO to the organization of the Black
People's Convention so that the masses could get involved in the
development of a new consciousness.
The BPC was established in 1972. It was then
that the government began to go into action. It banned
individual leaders of the BPC. But today the BPC is getting wide
support. the people are willing to sacrifice for it, with their
money and with their time, as you can see from the packed
courtrooms at trials of black leaders and inquests into their
"mysterious" deaths in backrooms of police
stations.
In a sense, the Black people's Convention is
the most powerful organization among blacks, but this is hard to
determine exactly, since the ANC and the PAC are banned as
organizations, which means that they have a kind of
generation-gap problem: there is a whole generation now that has
not been influenced by the ANC and the PAC. In any case, the
actual identification of people with the BPC is strong. When I
put it this way, I do not want to give the impression that the
relation between these organizations is one of competition.
There will be one movement of revolt against the system of
injustice. To be sure, there are the usual divisions due to
background, but in terms of the revolution there is unity.
Communism or Communialism
We within the BPC have made up our minds that
we must operate within the confines of the law or we will not
operate at all. This means that the BPC is not and cannot be a
communist organization. To some extent organizations can operate
underground, but for our kind of organization it is much more
effective to work openly aboveground. Moreover, an aboveground
movement must have an element of compromise about it, and we
look upon that as an advantage.
Further, a Communist in South Africa today
will be an instrument of Moscow, not of the black people. Some
Marxists are more pliable, more realistic. but then we have to
know precisely about whom we are talking. While the BPC is
nonviolent, it should not be forgotten that we are part of a
movement which will be confronted with new situations that may
require different strategies. We begin with the assumption that
rapproachement is necessary. The BPC is not a third wing among
the blacks, next to the ANC and the PAC.
* * *
The Black Consciousness movement does not want
to accept the dilemma of capitalism versus communism. It opts
for a socialist solution that is an authentic expression of
black communialism. At the present stage of our struggle it is
not easy to present details of this alternative, but it is a
recognition of the fact that a change the system. In our search
for a just system we know that the debate about economic policy
cannot be "pure," completely separate from existing
systems.
In our writings we at times speak of
collective enterprises because we reject the individualistic and
capitalist type of enterprises. But we are not taking over the
Russian models. I must emphasize that in our search for new
models we are necessarily affected by where we are today. For
this reason also it is impossible to present details about the
transition stage that will be here after the dissolution of
white domination. It is far too early for that.
Source: Donald Woods.
Biko. New York: Henry Holt &
Company, 1987. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
updated 3 October 2007 |
