The Expretation Of Steve Biko's Black Consciousness Movement

Steve Biko was born on the 18th of December in 1946 in Tylden. After matriculating from high school, Biko had initially intended to be a lawyer but changed to medicine as studying law was associated with political activism. In 1965, while studying medicine at the University of Natal, Biko was elected into the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) and became involved in the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) (Martin, 2012: 123). According to Martin (2012:123) during this time students considered NUSAS as the only way to affect change, however Biko began to slowly identify with the theory of Black Consciousness, urging black students to separate themselves from while and multiracial organisations and lead in their own struggle …show more content…
He states that Black Consciousness implies to the black man and his position that the black man is subject to two forces of oppression which are firstly, that he is oppressed internally by having developed a certain state of alienation and secondly, he is oppressed by external forces that are beyond his control such as poor education, restrictive laws, heavy and terrible working conditions through institutionalised machinery (Hook, 2012:105). Biko (2004:24) describes white liberals as suffering from metaphysical guilt which states that racism by whites is only achievable due to white people’s patience with cruelty and their ignorance to the suffering of the balck man therefore only concerning themselves with trying to show as many black people as possible that they are liberal instead of taking part in an efforet to do away with racism from their white