Black Consciousness Movement - Controversies and Criticism

Controversies and Criticism

A balanced analysis of the results and legacy of the Black Consciousness Movement would no doubt find a variety of perspectives. A list of research resources is listed at the end of this section including Columbia University's Project on Black Consciousness and Biko's Legacy.

Criticisms of the Movement sometimes mirror similar observations of the Black Consciousness Movement in the United States. (See reference to Fredrickson's comparative work below). On one side, it was argued that the Movement would stagnate into black racialism, aggravate racial tensions and attract repression by the apartheid regime. Other detractors thought the Movement based heavily on student idealism, but with little grassroots support among the masses, and few consistent links to the mass trade-union movement. (See Columbia reference below)

Assessments of the movement (See Gerhard references below) note that it failed to achieve several of its key objectives. It did not bring down the apartheid regime, nor did its appeal to other non-white groups as "people of color" gain much traction. Its focus on blackness as the major organizing principle was very much downplayed by Nelson Mandela and his successors who to the contrary emphasized the multi-racial balance needed for the post-apartheid nation. The community programs fostered by the movement were very small in scope and were subordinated to the demands of protest and indoctrination. It's leadership and structure was essentially liquidated, and it failed to bridge the tribal gap in any *large-scale* way, although certainly small groups and individuals collaborated across tribes.

After much blood shed and property destroyed, critics charged that the Movement did nothing more than raise 'awareness' of some issues, while accomplishing little in the way of sustained mass organization, or of practical benefit for the masses. Some detractors also assert that Black consciousness ideas are out-dated, hindering the new multi-racial South Africa. (See Gerhard reference 1997 below).