SA Chapter 3

• In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the student movement took up the struggle for their future, becoming more radical.
• Harold Synman, the policeman responsible for Biko’s death, was accused of adding more lies to the circumstances surrounding Biko’s death.
• A new conception of black identity was forged during this period, known as a new black consciousness.
• The African National Congress (ANC) continued to work from its bases in exile, building alliances and avoiding state attacks.
• The National Party (NP) was initially in a position to continue its plans for a divided country, but during this period several destabilising developments severely hampered attempts to realise its vision of an apartheid state.
• University students were increasingly politicised by the late 1960s.
• Radios spread messages of hope and allowed students to learn about the Civil Rights Movement (CRM).
• Bobby Kennedy visited South Africa in 1966 at the invitation of the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS), an interracial student organisation.
• Steve Biko attended NUSAS and University Christian Movement congresses.
• NUSAS was an inter-racial organisation, but was dominated by white students in terms of number, agenda and policy making, leading to tensions.
• The University of Cape Town refused to allow black students to stay in residences on campus or use other facilities equally during the NUSAS Congress in July 1967, triggering the formation of a separate black student movement during 1968-69.
• Steve Biko founded the South African Students’ Organisation (SASO) in July 1969 at Turfloop.
• SASO was originally chaired by Biko and was later led by Frank Talk, a pseudonym for Biko.
• SASO was influenced by the Africanist ideas of the ANC Youth League and the PAC, with elements of black and liberation theology, African nationalism and American black power.
• Liberation Theology posits that Religion can and must play a leading role in struggles against political/ economic/ social oppression.
• Steve Biko’s key views were that black people lead themselves and understand their own problems, and that white people were ‘claiming a monopoly on intelligence and moral judgement and setting the pattern and pace for the realisation of the black man’s aspirations’.
• Steve Biko’s slogan was ‘Black man, you are on your own.’
• Steve Biko coined the term ‘Black consciousness’.
• Inspired Further Protest and Opposition included exploration of how the Soweto Uprising served as a catalyst for subsequent protests, examination of the spread of resistance movements within South Africa, and influence on international activism and solidarity movements against apartheid.
• Murphy Morobe was arrested in 1976.
• Increased Government Repression included overview of the government's response to the uprising, implementation of repressive measures such as censorship, arrests, and violence, and analysis of the impact of increased repression on dissent and civil liberties.
• “Last week’s rioting made it clear that South Africa, as well as neighbouring white-ruled Rhodesia, must sooner or later-preferably sooner-adjust to ever growing black demands for justice and equality,” wrote Time.
• International Condemnation of the SA Government included discussion of the global response to the Soweto Uprising, analysis of how international condemnation affected South Africa's standing in the global community, and the role of sanctions and diplomatic isolation in pressuring the SA government to reconsider its policies.
• On 9 November 1976, The General Assembly adopted a comprehensive "programme of action against apartheid" by Governments, specialised agencies and other intergovernmental organisations, as well as trade unions, churches, anti-apartheid and solidarity movements and other non-governmental organisations.
• Kathrada, who had been imprisoned after the Rivonia Trial, said “come ’76, when the students of Soweto came into the streets unarmed and they were killed in the hundreds – nobody knows how many of them were killed – that changed history.
• Biko's death included overview of Biko's life and work, Biko's Banning order, his arrest and interrogation, his death on 12th September 1977 after being driven 1000 km to a prison hospital in Pretoria.
• Some of those who fled the Soweto uprising were members of the tsotsis, not students, and they made good soldiers because they were not afraid of dying.
• The student uprising marked a decisive turning point in the history of the anti-apartheid struggle.
• Increased Support for the ANC included examination of how the Soweto Uprising galvanised support for the ANC, growth in membership and influence of the ANC post-uprising, and connection between government repression and the rise of ANC as a symbol of resistance.
• Roseberry Sonto, an activist in Cape Town at the time, regarded the student uprising as a "gift" that reinvigorated organising efforts: "That was after which we started lots of things like bus boycotts, rent boycotts, meat boycotts - all kinds of boycotts just to drive the point home.”
• The impact of Sam Nzima’s photograph of Hector Pietersen, published in newspapers across the world, was significant.
• Seth Mazibuko, one of the leaders of the 1976 Soweto student march, was sentenced to 5 years on Robben Island.
• The brutality of the suppression of Soweto also increased sympathy for the armed struggle.
• Many of the student leaders imprisoned on Robben Island with old ANC prisoners moved over to the ANC, including Terror Lekota.
• At the inquest into Biko’s death, no government official was prepared to condemn his treatment, and the circumstances of his death were said to be inconclusive, with death attributed to a 'prison accident.'
• The Star, another daily press, came out in support of the Rand Daily Mail and pointed out that newspapers would continue to write about the circumstances surrounding Biko’s death because the police were found to be responsible.
• The first big political funeral in South Africa was held for Biko on 25th September 1977, with prominent white liberals, such as the parliamentarian, Helen Suzman, in attendance.
• The United States Congress also called for a probe into Biko’s death, and the congress sent a letter of request to the South African Ambassador, Donald B Sole, in the USA.
• SASO, SASM and the Soweto Students’ Representative Council were defunct by the end of 1977, with the principal leaders either in jail, in exile, or dead.
• In 1997, Biko’s killers appeared before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to request amnesty for the death of the student leader.