Black consciousness on trial: The BPC/SASO trial, 1974-1976
| dc.contributor.author | Lobban, Michael | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2011-02-18T07:05:58Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2011-02-18T07:05:58Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 1990-08 | |
| dc.description | African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented August 1990 | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | On 25 September 1974, the South African Students' Organisation and the Black People's Convention held two rallies to celebrate independence in Mozambique. Within two weeks, 29 black consciousness leaders were in detention, as the state prepared for a major trial of the black consciousness movement which would see nine leaders of BFC and SASO facing conspiracy charges under the terrorism act. The state sought to put on trial the actions and ideas of the movement since its foundation, in order to portray it as a revolutionary movement led by self-conscious conspirators. In the state’s view, the black consciousness movement sought to go one stage further than the ANC or PAC had. If they had failed, it was because they had reverted to guerrilla movements without preparing the people for mass revolution: it was this that black consciousness would build. The state thus charged the accused with a conspiracy to bring about revolutionary change and/or the promotion of racial hostility. A second count charged seven of them with organizing the rallies with intent to promote racial hostility. These two counts were mutually reinforcing: the rallies were the confrontational fruition of the conspiracy; the conspiracy explained what the rallies were all about. The conspiracy was to be found primarily in the rhetoric of the organisations, its publications calling on even children to "talk, eat, live, cry and play the struggle for liberation," its language talking of ‘infiltration’. The conspiracy was to be inferred from the "cumulative effects" of the actions and words of the groups, seen "in conjunction with the nature and activities of the organisations." | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10539/9043 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.relation.ispartofseries | African Studies Institute;ISS 251 | |
| dc.subject | Black consciousness movement (South Africa) | en_US |
| dc.subject | Political prisoners. South Africa | en_US |
| dc.subject | South Africa. Race relations | en_US |
| dc.title | Black consciousness on trial: The BPC/SASO trial, 1974-1976 | en_US |
| dc.type | Working Paper | en_US |