South Africa Black Consciousness Movement collection

Description data TOP

unitid

{"value"=>"Sc MG 440", "type"=>"local_call"}

{"value"=>"20723", "type"=>"local_mss"}

unitdate

{"type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1983/1993", "value"=>"1983-1993"}

date_inclusive_start

1983

date_inclusive_end

1993

keydate

1983

date_start

1983

date_end

1993

unittitle

{"value"=>"South Africa Black Consciousness Movement collection"}

physdesc

{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"0.4 lin. ft. (One box)"}], "supress_display"=>true}

repository

{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">The New York Public Library. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division.</span> <div class=\"address\"> <span class=\"addressline\">Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture</span> <span class=\"addressline\">515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801</span></div>"}

abstract

{"value"=>"The Black Consciousness Movement emerged as a political trend in South Africa in the late 1960s, in the decade after the banning of the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress by the South African regime. The collection documents a primarily youth-based radical critique of the apartheid system, of the ANC's Freedom Charter and its moderate leadership in negotiating a transition to white rule in South Africa. The South Africa Black Consciousness Movement Collection consists primarily of interviews, speeches, organizational materials and printed matter documenting the politics and activities of Black Consciousness organizations in and outside of South Africa from 1983 to 1991. It comprises interviews and speeches by BCM leaders Itumeleng J. Mosala, Ishmael Mkhabela and Lybon Mabasa; interviews with black South African exiles, and anti-apartheid activists within South Africa; leaflets, declarations and factsheets of the Azanian People's Organization and the Black Consciousness Movement of Azania (BCM (A)); miscellaneous files on the New Unity Movement, the Pan Africanist Congress and other non BCM organizations; and subject files on churches, trade-unions, white organizations inside South Africa, and the State of Emergency declared by the South African government in 1985. An organization file for Indaba, a Durban-based experiment in power-sharing, and a collection of essays entitled \"War Stories\" by an independent American journalist, Michael Slate, are also included."}

langmaterial

{"value"=>"Materials in English"}

prefercite

{"value"=>"<p>South Africa Black Consciousness Movement collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library</p>"}

origination

{"value"=>"Black Consciousness Movement of South Africa", "type"=>"corpname"}

bioghist

{"value"=>"<p>The Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) emerged as a political trend in South Africa in the decade after the banning of the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), South Africa's two oldest civil rights organizations, by the South African government. Black students, and black youth in general, revived the anti-apartheid struggle in the late 1960s by emphasizing self-reliance, mass mobilization and cultural awareness. At the time of the Soweto uprising in 1976, the Black Consciousness movement, led by Steve Biko, counted more than twenty mass organizations, eighteen of which were banned the following year by the South African regime.</p> <p>Forced into exile on several continents, cadres from banned Black Consciousness organizations met in London in 1980 and formed a unified organization, the Black Consciousness Movement of Azania (BCM (A)). Meanwhile, those who had avoided exile launched a second generation of BCM organizations, including the Azanian People's Organization (AZAPO), South Africa's largest Black Consciousness organization founded in 1978.</p> <p>The State of Emergency imposed by the South African regime in 1985 forced many of these organizations underground. With the release of Nelson Mandela from prison in 1990 and the beginning of negotiations between the two sides, most civil rights organizations, including the BCM (A), were unbanned and able to resume their activities. The Black Consciousness movement took a critical stand toward the ANC and other Freedom Charter organizations that accepted the principle of power-sharing as a basis for negotiations with the South African government. The Black Consciousness movement as a whole insists on the principle of one person, one vote and the redistribution of land and wealth, as the sole basis for negotiations with the apartheid regime.</p>"}

scopecontent

{"value"=>"<p>The SOUTH AFRICA BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS MOVEMENT COLLECTION, 1983-1991, consists primarily of interviews, speeches, organizational materials and printed matter, documenting the politics and activities of Black Consciousness organizations in and outside of South Africa, from 1983 to 1991.</p>"}

{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The South Africa Black Consciousness Movement collection is arranged in five series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scm/20723#c1114610'>Black Consciousness Movement Organizations</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series includes addresses by Itumeleng J. Mosala, Ishmael Mkhabela and Lybon Mabasa, past presidents of AZAPO, critical appraisals of the pan-Africanist and trade-union movements, and policy statements by AZAPO and the BCM (A) on socialism, the 1989 Conference for a Democratic Future (CDF), the De Klerk-ANC negotiations, and the politics of Black Consciousness in general. Other AZAPO related materials include leaflets and factsheets, conference proceedings and a copy of AZAPO's Constitution. There are also two AZAPO related files for the Azanian Student Movement (AZASM) and the Revolutionary People's Movement, AZAPO's Durban Branch which broke from the organization in 1990. BCM (A) materials in the collection consist of printed matter, published and unpublished documents, and declarations on various issues including the distancing of Winnie Mandela by the ANC and the related Congress Movement.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scm/20723#c1114615'>Other Organizations</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Represented in the collection are the ANC-United Democratic Front, Black Sash (a women's watch group), the Pan Africanist Congress and the New Unity Movement. The ANC-UDF file includes Nelson Mandela's statement from prison \"I am Not Prepared to Sell the Birthright of the People to Be Free\", and an open letter to AZAPO on the escalation of conflict between supporters and members of the two organizations (1985). The Black Sash file consists of a 26 p. memorandum on political repression during the State of Emergency, including 36 affidavits relating to the 1985 Uitenhage massacre. The PAC folder includes a 1987 address by the chairman of the Central Committee, Johnson P. Mlambo, a memorial tribute to Robert Sobukwe by Ishmael Mkhabela, chairman of the Soweto Action Committee in 1978 and subsequently president of AZAPO, and a Judgment by the Supreme Court of South Africa in the case of fourteen PAC members accused of sabotage for their participation in the 1963 Poqo uprisings. The failed 1988 tricameral elections and the underlying principle of a white minority veto can be traced to the 1986 Constitutional Proposals and other campaign materials of the Kwazulu Natal Indaba, a Durban-based multiracial experiment in power-sharing associated with Chief Gatsha Buthelezi. Other promotional materials in the Indaba folder include sample issues of <em render=\"underline\">Indaba News</em>, Indaba information sheets and the Indaba \"Bill of Rights\".</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scm/20723#c1114621'>Interviews and Writings</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Include \"War Stories\", a series of articles and speeches written by independent journalist Michael Slate on the grassroots movement in South Africa, and published mostly in the pages of the <em render=\"underline\">Revolutionary Worker</em>. Conducted by Slate, the interviews include a partial transcript of a discussion with black activists in Uitenhage and Durban in 1990, and interviews with a youth leader and AZASM member in the Port Elizabeth area in 1987, with AZAPO president Lybon Mabasa, in 1984, with a group of exiles in Botswana who had left the country for military training, with two Harare (Zimbabwe)-based exiles who had fled South Africa for fear of police persecution and other forms of harassment due to an ANC-AZAPO feud in 1985, with the head of the Allied Miners and Construction Union in 1987, and an 87 p. interview with five BCM activists on the 1976 and the 1980 uprisings in Soweto and the reality of living and fighting under the apartheid regime.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scm/20723#c1114625'>Subject File</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Deals primarily with issues of detention and workers' rights under the State of Emergency. The White Organizations file contains both pro- and anti-apartheid materials. The anti-apartheid documents relate mostly to white resistance to the draft. Government documents in the collection include a copy of the Internal Security Act of 1982 and publicity brochures for the so-called Democratic Reform and the new South African constitution.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scm/20723#c1114635'>Separated material</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The item(s) listed below have been sent to the division indicated, either to be retained or disposed of there. Any items that should receive special disposition are clearly marked.</p> <p>Schomburg Library:</p> <p>Books and pamphlets (South Africa imprints):</p> <p>Biko, Steve. No Fears Expressed, edited by Millard W. Arnold, 1987. (Selected quotations from Steve Biko.).</p> <p>Letsoalo, Essy M. Land Reform in South Africa, 1987.</p> <p>Meer, Fatima, ed. Resistance in the Townships, 1987.</p> <p>McCaul, Colleen. No Easy Ride: the Rise and Future of the Black Taxi Industry, 1990.</p> <p>Webster, David and Maggie Friedman. Suppressing Apartheid's Opponents: Repression and the State of Emergency, 1987-1989, 1989?.</p> <p>Mashabela, Harry. Fragile Figures? The 1988 PWV Township Elections, 1989.</p> <p>Padayachee, Deena. A Voice from the Cauldron, 1986. (Poems).</p> <p>Lukele, Andrew Mangunte. White South Africa's Outward Adventure: an Appraisal from the Standpoint of National Liberation, 1976.</p> <p>Slovo, Joe. The South African Working Class and the National Democratic Revolution, undated</p> <p>South African Communist Party. The Path to Power: Programme of the South African Communist Party adopted at the 7th Congress, 1989, 1989.</p> <p>Makhoba, Mandlenkosi. The Sun Shall Rise for the Workers, 1984. (FOSATU's Ravan Workers Series, #1.).</p> <p>McQuoid-Mason, David. Street Law, Book 1: Introduction to South African Law and the Legal System, 1987.</p> <p>Human Rights Commission. Children and Repression, 1987-1989, Special report #4, 1990.</p> <p>———. The CCB: Origin, Actions and future of the Civil Cooperation Bureau, Special Report #9, 1990.</p> <p>The Last Affidavits. Published by the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference, 1987.</p> <p>Youth Express. Grassroots Publication, 1987?.</p> <p>New Nation New History, Vol. 1. Published by the New Nation and the History Workshop, 1989.</p> <p>South Africa through the Lens. Staffrider Magazine, 1983.</p> <p>Newspapers and periodicals:</p> <p>Azania Combat, Official Organ of the Azanian People's Liberation Army (military wing of the PAC). 4 issues (2, 4, 5, 8), 1987-1989.</p> <p>Frank Talk (published by AZAPO). 7 issues (vol. I-III), 1984-1990.</p> <p>Ikwezi, a Journal of South African and Southern African Political Analysis (an independent Marxist-Leninist journal of South African revolutionaries in exile). 20 issues, 1975-1982.</p> <p>Tlhatsi (Incorporating Ikwezi), Oct. 1983. Launched as a continuation of Ikwezi. Only one single issue appeared (No. 22).</p> <p>Association For Rural Advancement Newsletter, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. 9 issues, 1988-1990.</p> <p>South African Journal On Human Rights, 3 issues (vol. I part 3 and vol. 5 part 2-3), 1985, 1989.</p> <p>Solidarity - Official Organ of the Black Consciousness Movement of Azania, 7 issues, 1980-1986.</p> <p>The African Communist - Journal of the South African Communist Party. 19 issues (no. 84-116), 1981-1989.</p> <p>Sechaba - Official Organ of the African National Congress South Africa. 22 issues, 1980-1989.</p> <p>Letsetse - The Flea (Comment and Mobilisation Pamphlet of the Black Consciousness Movement of Azania), 2 issues, vol. 1 no. 4-5, 1989-1990.</p> <p>National Forum Committee - \"Peace at Nkomati-at what price?\", July 1984.</p> <p>Arise Vukani (Magazine of Action Youth), vol. 1 no. 5, September - October 1985.</p> <p>Institution for a Democratic Alternative for South Africa -Presented to Conference on \"Women in the Struggle for Peace\" in Harare in April 1989.</p> <p>Frontline, 6 issues, 1986-1989.</p> <p>Work In Progress (Published by Southern African Research Service). 10 issues, 1986-1990.</p> <p>Learn and Teach, Johannesburg. 3 issues, 1989-1990.</p> <p>Speak - Women's Journal, Published by SPEAK Collective. 7 issues, 1987-1990.</p> <p>New Era Published by Grassroots. 2 issues, December 1989 and March 1990.</p> <p>Upfront 1 issue, vol. 2 no. 2, November 1989.</p> <p>African Law Review 2 issues, vol. 1 no. 3-4, 1987.</p> <p>Clarion Call - \"The Church and Violence, Who Stands Where?\", vol. 3, 1986.</p> <p>The Azanian Labour Journal - \"Solidarity\", vo. 2 no. 1, January-March 1989.</p> <p>Political Monitor - South Africa Indicator vol. 3 no. 1, Winter 1985.</p> <p>South African Institute of Race Relations - Topical Briefing, 3 issues, 1984-1985, 1987.</p> <p>CEAPA Journal - \"Socio-Economic Change and Political Development in Southern Africa\", vol. 1 no. 2, December 1987.</p> <p>South African Institute of Race Relations - Countdown 1 issue, January 20, 1990.</p> <p>Umtapo Focus 1 issue, vo. 4 no. 1, June 1990.</p> <p>JP News - \"Welcoming Home Exiles\", July 1990.</p> <p>SASCO - \"Azania AFlame!\", April 1985.</p> <p>Strategies for Survival for the Oppressed (Leaflet distributed by Durban branch of the Azanian People's Organization), October 1987.</p> <p>Towards Democracy (Invitation to a conference called by the Five Freedoms Forum), September 25-27, 1987.</p> <p>Azania Update-\"Tribute to a Comrade\", vol. 2 # 6, May 1985.</p> <p>New Unity Movement Bulletin vol. 3 no. 2, July 1989.</p> <p>The Objector - Newsletter of the Anti-draft Organization, September 1990.</p> <p>Ceapa Newsletter vol. 2 no. 1, 1988.</p> <p>United Democratic Front - \"UDF Unites, Apartheid Divides\", September 1987.</p> <p>Umsebenzi - Voice of the South African Communist Party vol. 6 no. 2, 1990.</p> <p>Reflection - Communist Support Committee Newsletter vol. 1 no. 1, 1986.</p> <p>Azanian Focus Published by the Frank Talk Editorial Collective. 4 issues, 1985-1987.</p> <p>Apdusa Views - Pietermaritzburg, 2 issues, August 1985 & October 1989.</p> <p>Student Bulletin (Western Cape). 2 issues, 1986.</p> <p>Western Cape Youth League Newsletter vol. 4, July 1984.</p> <p>Descom Bulletin - Durban, no. 14, August 1987.</p> <p>Awake Black Students - Publication of Azania Student Movement. 2 issues, March 1985.</p> <p>Cosatu news - Official Newsletter of the Congress of SA Trade Union. no. 5 1987.</p> <p>Azanian News - Official Organ of the Pan Africanist Congress. 9 issues, 1982-1990.</p> <p>Tokoloho - One People One Azania (Azapo Newsletter) vol. 1 no. 1, 1983.</p> <p>Azanian Review vol. 1 no. 2, August 1988.</p> <p>Izwilethu - Conference, vol. 4 issue no. 8, October 1986.</p> <p>Azania Worker - Umsebenzi Mobereki Arbeider Worker, 6 issues, 1983-1988.</p> <p>Azania Frontline - Newsletter of the Azania (South Africa) Liberation Support Committee. 14 issues, 1983-1988.</p> <p>Frontline Worker - A Journal for a Socialist Movement in South Africa. 2 issues, no. 1 & 2. 1989.</p> <p>NEWSPAPERS:</p> <p>The Star, 2 copies, Friday, October 12, 1990.</p> <p>City Press, 8 copies, 1987-1990.</p> <p>South, 3 copies, 1990.</p> <p>Weekly Mail, 12 copies, 1987-1990.</p> <p>New Nation, 14 copies, 1987-1990.</p> <p>Sowetan, 12 copies, 1987-1990.</p> <p>The New Africa, 54 copies, 1989-1990.</p> <p>Schomburg Art and Artifacts Division:</p> <p>14 anti-apartheid posters, marking various trade-union and Black Consciousness Movement campaigns and events (1987, 1990).</p> <p>Two T-shirts: 1) Black Consciousness Logo on the front, and \"It Is Right to Rebel Against Reactionaries\" slogan on the back.</p> <p>2) AZAPO logo on the front, and slogan \"Forward to Azania\" on the back.</p></div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}

arrangement

{"value"=>"<p>I. Black Consciousness Movement organizations; II. Other organizations; III. Interviews and writings; IV. Subject file</p>", "supress_display"=>true}

acqinfo

{"value"=>"<p>Purchased from Michael Slate</p>"}

processinfo

{"type"=>"processing", "value"=>"<p>Processed by Andre Elizee, December 1993</p>"}

note

{"type"=>"did", "value"=>"Posters, sound recordings and photographs have been transferred respectively to the Art and Artifacts, Moving Images and Recorded Sound, and the Photographs and Prints divisions"}

extent_statement

0.4 linear feet (One box)

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Child components TOP

1. Black Consciousness Movement Organizations [4/1]
2. Other Organizations [5/1]
3. Interviews and Writings [3/1]
4. Subject File [9/1]
5. Separated material [4/1]