South Africa Factual Knowledge pages 301-308 (Chapter 1)

• Biko was not allowed to attend political meetings
• Donald Woods

  White editor of the Daily Dispatch, a liberal East London newspaper
• Woods produced convincing evidence, including photographs taken in the morgue, to contest police claims
• Biko's movements were restricted
• The government banned Steve Biko


  1973
• Biko died on 12 September 1977
• Biko maintained a strong profile through his writing
• The nature of Biko's death in police custody provoked international disapproval, particularly in Western countries that still maintained
• The police claimed his death was related to a hunger strike
• Biko remained involved in local and regional black consciousness activities
• The relationship between Woods and Biko was later portrayed in the film Cry Freedom, directed by Richard Attenborough (1987)
• His profile was raised in the Eastern Cape because his ideas were taken up by Donald Woods
• This made it very difficult for him to be involved in the wider national anti-apartheid movement
• Biko was made to live in Kingwilliamstown in the Eastern Cape
• Biko left Kingwilliamstown, breaking his banning order, and was arrested, interrogated and severely beaten


  August 1977
• Woods challenged this cover-up and made allegations of police brutality
• Purpose of the 1959 act


  Provide skills needed for the white economy, create an echelon of officials and professionals for the homelands and foster loyalty to the homeland
• Bobby Kennedy visited SA at invitation of the National Union of SA Students and met Luthuli


  1966
• 1967 NUSAS Congress at Rhodes University


  Uni refused to allow black students to stay on campus or use the facilities equally = angered black students but accepted by white students. Triggered a split
• South African Students' Organisation (SASO) founded at Turfloop. Biko first president


  July 1969
• Liberation theology


  Religion can and must take a leading role in struggles against social and political oppression
• Black Consciousness


  Argued that black people should lead themselves and liberate their own minds. An intellectual orientation which asserted self-assurance in being black and encouraged people to self-define. Advocated non-co-operation with white people and encouraged Indian and coloured people to see themselves as black and equally subject to oppression
• BC initially tolerated by NP because of its emphasis on separate development, which it thought might tie in with apartheid goals
• SASO able to maintain strong presence on black campuses by controlling the Student Representative Councils. 1972 organised strikes about inferior facilities
• SASO banned but continued as underground org


  1975
• 1975 number of Af school children 3.5 million. 280,000 in secondary school. ^ in Af enrolment of 150% 1970-75. Reduction in govt expenditure = pressure on buildings and staff. Class sizes 60+
• 1974 Transvaal Bantu Education Dept under Treurnicht decided to expand teaching in Afrikaans to include subjects such as maths. Angered students – language of oppression and made education harder. Frustrated by fact that purpose of school was to maintain their subservience
• Other long-term factors


  • Conditions in overcrowded townships, such as Soweto. Crime, squalor, overcrowding. Problems mid-1970s exacerbated by govt. cutting subsidies on maize and corn at a time of economic depression. Desmond Tutu had warned govt 3 weeks earlier that anger was at crisis point. Common for up to 20 people to share a 4-roomed house with minimal sanitation
  • Conditions in schools
  • Absence of recognised leaders who could possibly have marshalled frustrations. Tambo later admitted ANC had few active units and no military presence inside Soweto and communications between exiled leaders and townships poor. Did make links where possible e.g. activist Joe Gqabi worked with SASM
• SASM tried to organise boycotts and announced a demo on 16th June. 2000 students gathered and confronted by 50 armed police at Orlando Wets School. A few killed, some wounded. Death of 13 year old Hector Petersen. Protests spread to Transvaal, Natal and Cape


  May 1976
• Demonstrations and protests the biggest seen so far. Clear there was no central organisation from ANC, PAC or BCM. Localised, spontaneous and organised by children = new feature = more dangerous because of unpredictability
• Biko banned and forced to live in Kingwilliamstown. Restricted movements and not allowed to attend political meetings. Wrote under the name 'Frank Talk' and involved in local BCM activities. Profile raised by Donald Woods


  1973
• Biko arrested for breaking banning order. Had attended rallies in support of the independence of Angola and Mozambique. Used his trial to explain his case, attracting wide publicity and becoming an international figure

  1974
• The police claimed his death was due to a hunger strike, but Woods challenged this and alleged police brutality
• Biko's funeral was attended by over 10,000 people, including several foreign ambassadors
• Significance of Biko's death

  Biko was the face of black protest and widely respected. UN and USA protested over his death. Authorities remained impassive, as exemplified by Kruger's assertion that Biko's death left him cold. Govt inquest reported improbably that Biko had gone berserk before fatally hitting his head against a wall. Few believed it. Soweto and Biko's death = end of the point at which people considered the chance of any peaceful solution to problems caused by apartheid possible
• Govt had spoken in vague terms in Aug 1977 about giving Indian and coloured people more rights, but this had no impact at the time
• ANC had headquarters in London, where it mainly coordinated its strategies for gaining international support. Within Africa ANC activities concentrated in Tanzania and Zambia. Tambo based in Lusaka, Zambia, from 1967. President Kaunda sympathetic and it was appropriate and cheaper to work from an African country
• Lusaka Manifesto adopted by many African states, reiterating antipathy to apartheid


  1969
• Hani memorandum criticising ANC leadership (esp. Modise) for 'careerism' and becoming m/c globe-trotting bureaucrats. Youthful rebels expelled
• Morogoro Conference: Tambo resigned as acting president, immediately re-elected. Admit people of all races. 'Strategy and tactics' document: affirmed importance of armed struggle. Stressed need for political leadership, education and unity. Small groups to infiltrate SA and resurrect movement


  1969