The Black Consciousness Movement By Stephen Banu Biko

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Stephen Bantu Biko 18 December 1946 - 12 September 1977 by: Luke Teixeira Table of Contents  Introduction Profile Early Life Personal Life Political Career and Influence Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) Legacy Analysis Conclusion References Steve Biko. (2015). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 03:27, Jun 22, 2015, from http://www.biography.com/people/steve-biko-38884. Introduction Stephen Bantu Biko, who was born in King William’s Town, Eastern Province (now Eastern Cape), South Africa on the 18 December 1946 (sahistory.org.za), was an anti-apartheid activist who was the co-founder of the South African Students’ Organisation in 1968 and headed the Black Consciousness Movement. He was also the co-founder of the Black People’s Convention in 1972. Biko was arrested on numerous occasions for his outspoken beliefs and anti-apartheid work and was a banned person up until his death. On the 12 of September …show more content…

His fierce belief that the best way for black people to overcome apartheid was not to succumb to the white man’s idea that being black is the colour of inferiority. As Biko said: ‘The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.’ Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) The BCM was a very important organisation headed by Steve Biko and set up to unite all ‘black’ people, a term used specifically to abolish the negative term ‘non-white’ and to frame being black as something to be proud of. This organisation included Indian, coloured and African all as one. This black consciousness was summed up well by Heaku Rachidi, another Black Consciousness activist when he said: “We are not aberrations of white people but are black people in our own

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