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Resistance to apartheid
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Which movement was led by Steve Biko and promoted black empowerment and activism?
Starting in 1948, South Africans live under a policy of racial discrimination called apartheid. White South Africans hold most of the wealth and all of the political power in the country; non-white South Africans are denied their freedoms and rights. Many people do not accept what is happening. A resistance movement begins to form. Since 1912, a political party called the African National Congress, or ANC, has existed to defend the rights of all South Africans.
Now, they shift to fight apartheid policy. One of its members is a young, black lawyer named Nelson Mandela. He quickly rises through the ranks as one of the ANC’s most important leaders. In 1959, some ANC members leave to form a new group, the Pan Africanist Congress, or PAC. The PAC is led by this man, Robert Sobukwe.
Unlike the ANC, Sobukwe believes that black South Africans should work to end apartheid, without help from non-black Africans. At first, both groups organise peaceful protests. In March 1960, the PAC organises thousands of black protesters in Sharpeville to call for an end to laws requiring non-white South Africans to carry passes in white areas. Some demonstrators begin throwing stones. Police begin shooting.
Approximately 250 protesters are wounded or killed. The Sharpeville Massacre is one of the first, and most violent, demonstrations against apartheid in South Africa. Reports of the incident spark criticism from other countries. In 1961, South Africa is forced to leave the British Commonwealth. The United Nations, meanwhile, urges the South African government to end apartheid.
Instead, the government bans the ANC and the PAC. Despite this, their members keep meeting in secret. Mandela believes that violence is the only way to challenge the government. He becomes head of a militant group within the ANC and leads bomb attacks against government buildings. He is imprisoned multiple times.
In 1964, he is sentenced to life in prison on Robben island. Even from his cell, Mandela continues to inspire the anti-apartheid movement through his letters. By the late 1960s, all of the ANC and PAC leadership are in jail. The anti-apartheid movement slows down. But in the 1970s, a new campaign begins, the Black Consciousness Movement.
It is led by a black university student named Steve Biko. The Black Consciousness Movement promotes black empowerment, and inspires black people to become activists. The movement spreads from university campuses to communities throughout South Africa, re-igniting opposition to apartheid. Then, in 1975, the government announces a controversial new education plan: All school lessons for black students will now be given in the colonial language Afrikaans rather than in their native languages. This seems like an attempt to limit black South Africans even further.
On the morning of June 16, 1976, more than 10,000 students gather in the South Western townships of Johannesburg, Soweto, to take part in a peaceful march against this plan. The police and the army respond by firing tear gas and bullets. Between 400 and 700 people, many of them children, are killed. The Soweto Uprising has serious consequences for the apartheid government. Photos of the police firing on children lead to international outrage.
Within South Africa, rioting quickly breaks out and continues for a year. Fearing the violence, foreign companies began to leave South Africa. Foreign governments limit trade. This worsens South Africa’s already weak economy. In 1977, Steve Biko is killed by police.
Over 15,000 people attend his funeral, including foreign officials. More calls are made to end apartheid. Within South Africa, violent opposition becomes stronger. However, it will be another 17 years before apartheid officially ends in 1994.