South Africa is a nation in Africa that Europe has dominated. The laws that missionaries and conquerors imposed on the nation degraded residents’ human rights. They exploited the labor of men and women by offering small salaries since they were the privileged race. Meanwhile, South African residents of all races faced discrimination from Europeans. However, the twentieth century saw the beginning of the apartheid movement, a fight against the status quo. The history of South Africa shows two leaders who fought for a brighter future and had a common goal: restoring equality of rights for their people. Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko were their names.
In the 1960s, South Africa was the center of the anti-apartheid campaign. Numerous organizations, most of which were made up of students, endorsed this worldview.
A key player in the development of the Black Consciousness Movement’s philosophy is regarded as Steve Biko. It alluded to black people’s understanding that they experience prejudice and violence because of the color of their skin.
They also should have been proud of their black heritage and culture and who they were as people. Furthermore, they shouldn’t be evaluated in light of white people’s standards and beliefs.
As a result, the Black Consciousness Movement had its distinctive ideology, which could be described as an eclectic philosophy. The majority of the basic tenets and rules were then reflected, principally from Pan-Africanism, African socialism, Marxism-Leninism, nationalism, and even capitalism. Another crucial component of the Black Consciousness Movement was theology.
Black consciousness was a key component of the non-racial, integrated society. To achieve their goal, the community had to overcome three crucial obstacles. First and foremost, blacks and whites could not share a national consciousness. However, it may happen if black people consent to rely on the wisdom and generosity of white people.
Second, the inferiority and superiority complex must have been clearly recognized from one another and eradicated. Thirdly, Europeans had to respect the South African people’s history and culture. The former considered the continent’s history to have started in the seventeenth century, with the initial entry of missionaries and colonialists in other regions.
In South Africa’s history, Steve Biko and Nelson Mandela were notable individuals. Bikos’ ideas and deeds were seen as more effective than Mandela’s despite their intense labor and conflict since he planned the movement according to the Black Consciousness concept.
It expressed the fundamental ideas in a way that would make it easier for black people to establish a new nation free of apartheid. It eventually focused on how the human awareness of inadequacy must change.
