Black Consciousness's Lost Leader: Abraham Tiro, the University of the North, and the Seeds of South Africa's Student Movement in the 1970s

Heffernan, Anne

doi:10.1080/03057070.2015.991575

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…BC ideas had acquired much popularity amongst Soweto schoolchildren during this period (e.g. Johnson, 1988: 15;Kane-Berman, 1978), in large part via politically-aware teachers who had either been expelled or voluntarily left the Black universities following their involvement with SASO (Brown, 2016: 128-130;Heffernan, 2015).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance and Power in Social Movements: Biko’s Role as a Witness in the SASO/BPC Trial

Morgan

2018

Cultural Sociology

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This article provides a case study of the relationship between performance and power in social movements. It reveals how movements are able to reiterate established cultures of resistance across time and space through performative means. It also shows how -given requisite stage settings and skilful actors -methods of performance allow movements to subvert established structures of domination to their political advantage. It does this through focussing on Steve Biko's role as a defence witness in an apartheid-era political trial of leaders of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM). It demonstrates how, within the courtroom setting, Biko and the defendants improvised upon various pre-established codes, scripts, and dramatic techniques, augmenting the likelihood that their performances would resonate successfully with their audiences. In addition, it shows how Biko and the defendants used social performance to subvert many of apartheid's established culture structures, enabling them not only to explicitly articulate the principles of BC philosophy, but also to implicitly embody and act them out.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance and Power in Social Movements: Biko’s Role as a Witness in the SASO/BPC Trial

Morgan

2018

Cultural Sociology

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“…Steve Biko, founder of the Black Consciousness movement in South Africa, positively identified ‘black’ with characteristics such as independence, self-reliance and assertiveness ( Lloyd, 2003 ). Black Consciousness, developed in 1970, demanded that black South Africans rethink their identities ( Heffernan, 2015 ), particularly in relation to taking up more powerful roles in society and in business. The term ‘black’ was hardly used before the Black Consciousness Movement adopted it in 1970 ( Lloyd, 2003 ).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atypical Black Leader Emergence: South African Self-Perceptions

Myeza

April

2021

Front. Psychol.

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The research aimed to gain understanding of the self-perceptions of black professionals in relation to business leadership, and how these self-perceptions influenced their behaviors, aspirations and self-perceived abilities in leadership positions. The study was specifically focused on black South African professionals. Black professionals were found to exhibit signs of deep-rooted pain, anger and general emotional fatigue stemming from workplace-, socio-economic- and political triggers that evoked generational trauma and overall negative black lived experiences. The negative lived experiences could have led to racial identity dissonance and, in extreme cases, complete racial identity disassociation. Moreover, black professionals were found to display symptoms of ‘survivor guilt,’ stemming from the shared history of oppression amongst black people in South Africa. The ‘survivor guilt’ contributed toward a profound sense of shared responsibility and purpose to change the circumstances, experiences and overall perceptions about the capabilities of black professionals. Results showed that upbringing, determination, resilience, black support networks, and black leadership representation within organizational structures were important ingredients that positively contributed to the leadership aspirations and success of black professionals. The research discovered that, in some cases, black professionals leveraged white relationships to propel their careers forward, however, this practice reportedly resulted in the black professionals experiencing feelings of self-doubt in their own abilities. Self-doubt, also found to be a result of historical oppression, could have and have been shown to eventually lead to self-deselection, negatively impacting the aspirations and career advancement prospects of black professionals in organizational leadership. Furthermore, the research found that black leaders believed that their blackness, specifically, its unique texture of experiences and history in South Africa, provided them with superior empathetic leadership abilities toward other black employees. Black leaders frequently highlighted the distinctive values of ubuntu as the cornerstone of their leadership approach. In addition, it was found that black professionals also considered their blackness, particularly the shade of their skin, to detract from their leadership opportunities, as it reduced the odds of being authorized as natural leaders, thus fortifying a skewed self-perception of their own leadership capabilities.

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“…But under apartheid law, Tiro's birth in Dinokana did not permit him to attend school in Soweto; a pass-law violation sent him back to what was then the Western Transvaal after only a few months. He enrolled in and completed secondary school at Barolong High School in Mafikeng, where he soon made a name for himself as a principled and powerful orator (Heffernan 2015: 175).…”

Section: The Teachers and The Ideas They Carried With Themmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 6 Some of this brief biographical sketch draws on material from Heffernan (2015), which contains a fuller account of Tiro's biography and his role in developing Black Consciousness ideas.…”

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confidence: 99%

Student/teachers from Turfloop: the propagation of Black Consciousness in South African schools, 1972–76

Heffernan¹

2019

Africa

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The movement of school teachers to primary and secondary schools around South Africa and its Bantustans in the early and mid-1970s was an intentional part of the project of propagating Black Consciousness to school learners during this period. The movement of these educators played a key role in their ability to spread Black Consciousness philosophy, and in the political forms and methods they chose in teaching it. These were shaped by their own political conscientization and training in ethnically segregated colleges, but also in large part by the social realities of the areas to which they moved. Their efforts not only laid the foundation for Black Consciousness organization in communities across South Africa, they also influenced student and youth mechanisms for political action beyond the scope of Black Consciousness politics. This article explores three case studies of teachers who studied at the University of the North (Turfloop) and their trajectories after leaving university. All of these teachers moved to Turfloop as students, and then away from it thereafter. The article argues that this pattern of movement, which was a direct result of apartheid restrictions on where black South Africans could live, study and work, shaped the knowledge they transmitted in their classrooms, and thus influenced the political consciousness of a new generation.

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Black Consciousness's Lost Leader: Abraham Tiro, the University of the North, and the Seeds of South Africa's Student Movement in the 1970s

Cited by 8 publications

References 1 publication

Performance and Power in Social Movements: Biko’s Role as a Witness in the SASO/BPC Trial

Performance and Power in Social Movements: Biko’s Role as a Witness in the SASO/BPC Trial

Atypical Black Leader Emergence: South African Self-Perceptions

Student/teachers from Turfloop: the propagation of Black Consciousness in South African schools, 1972–76

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