The South African Students' Organisation (SASO) was a body of black South African university students who resisted

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

through

non-violent Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosoph ...

political action. The organisation was formed in 1969 under the leadership of Steve Biko and Barney Pityana and made vital contributions to the ideology and political leadership of the

Black Consciousness Movement The Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) was a grassroots anti-Apartheid activist movement that emerged in South Africa in the mid-1960s out of the political vacuum created by the jailing and banning of the African National Congress and Pan Afri ...

. It was banned by the South African government in October 1977, as part of the repressive state response to the Soweto uprising.

Formation

The founding members of the South African Students' Organisation (SASO) were black students from the

University of Fort Hare The University of Fort Hare is a public university in Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa. It was a key institution of higher education for Africans from 1916 to 1959 when it offered a Western-style academic education to students from across sub ...

, the University of Zululand, the

University of the North The University of Limpopo is a university in the Limpopo Province, South Africa. It was formed on 1 January 2005, by the merger of the University of the North and the Medical University of South Africa (MEDUNSA). These previous institutions form ...

Turfloop The University of Limpopo is a university in the Limpopo Province, South Africa. It was formed on 1 January 2005, by the merger of the University of the North and the Medical University of South Africa (MEDUNSA). These previous institutions form ...

, the so-called Black Section of the

University of Natal The University of Natal was a university in the former South African province Natal which later became KwaZulu-Natal. The University of Natal no longer exists as a distinct legal entity, as it was incorporated into the University of KwaZulu-N ...

(UNB), various theological seminaries and teacher training colleges, and other institutions of

higher education in South Africa Education in South Africa is governed by two national departments, namely the Department of Basic Education (DBE), which is responsible for primary and secondary schools, and the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), which is res ...

, which at the time were segregated under the

-era

Bantu Education Act The Bantu Education Act 1953 (Act No. 47 of 1953; later renamed the Black Education Act, 1953) was a South African segregation law that legislated for several aspects of the apartheid system. Its major provision enforced racially-separated educati ...

. However, SASO has its roots in two other student organisations, which had emerged as focal points for student-led resistance to apartheid during the heightened state repression of the 1960s. The first was the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS), the main nationwide progressive students' union, with a decades-long history of political activism. The second was the University Christian Movement (UCM), an ecumenical students' association which, partly because of the growing influence of black theology, attracted a membership of politically inclined black Christians. Both NUSAS and the UCM were multiracial, but their membership and leadership were dominated by white students, a major point of concern for some black members. In the case of NUSAS, the black students in question also disagreed politically with white liberals in the organisation, who at the time outnumbered those advocating for a more radical stance on apartheid. At the 1968 NUSAS conference in

Grahamstown Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Port Elizabeth and southwest of East London. Makhanda is the largest town in the Makana ...

, black students broke off to discuss separately the problems facing black students and the best means by which to address them. However, according to a SASO memorandum, SASO definitively began to take shape at a similar breakaway from the UCM conference in July of the same year, held in

Stutterheim Stutterheim is a town with a population of 46,730 in South Africa, situated in the Border region of the Eastern Cape province. It is named after Richard Von Stutterheim. History The area's earliest human population were Bushmen. Khoikhoi groups ...

. There, the memo recalls, "a group of about 40 blacks ... resolved themselves into a black caucus and debated the possibility of forming a black students organisation". The meeting was attended and spearheaded by Steve Biko and Barney Pityana, who, in that order, were later to become SASO's first two presidents. After another consultative meeting organised by UNB students in December 1968, SASO was officially launched in July 1969 at its inaugural conference, held at the Turfloop campus of the University of the North, where its constitution was ratified. In subsequent years, SASO evaded serious state repression, at least initially, and its membership grew on black campuses across South Africa, from a base of fourteen branches (four in seminaries, and the largest at Turfloop) in June 1970. Its main office was located in

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

Ideology

According to its 1971 policy manifesto:

SASO is a Black Student Organisation working for the liberation of the Black man first from the psychological oppression by themselves through inferiority complex and secondly from physical oppression accruing out of living in a White racist society.

SASO's establishment coincided with the earliest stirrings of the

, which was perhaps the most important anti-apartheid force inside South Africa for much of the 1970s, and with which it was strongly aligned. The development of SASO is often viewed as coterminous with the development of the broader movement and its ideology. Indeed, according to sociologist Saleem Badat, the movement was "largely the achievement of SASO", which contributed its key ideas and intellectuals, and which provided the movement with its ideological, political, and organisational leadership. Accordingly, SASO actively encouraged the formation of other Black Consciousness groups to represent segments of

civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.solidarity. Allied groups included the South African Students Movement; the Black People's Convention (BPC), an umbrella political body; and the Black Allied Workers' Union, whose formation was partly the result of a resolution of the SASO conference in 1972.

Black self-reliance

Reflecting the terms of the founders' dissatisfaction with NUSAS and UCM, membership of SASO was restricted to blacks only – although "black", in the Black Consciousness movement, was used as a positive identification for those formerly known as "non-white", and therefore included Indians and

Coloureds Coloureds ( af, Kleurlinge or , ) refers to members of multiracial ethnic communities in Southern Africa who may have ancestry from more than one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including African, European, and Asian. South ...

as well as so-called black Africans. This exclusivity was viewed as allowing blacks "to forge solidarity and unity and formulate their political beliefs and goals", and therefore was to enable both black self-reflection and black self-reliance in leading political change. A popular motto of both the organisation and the movement was coined by Pityana: "Black man you are on your own". The same strategy implied a general policy against cooperation with white or multiracial organisations and with white activists. By 1970, the SASO executive had formally withdrawn its recognition of NUSAS as the pre-eminent national students' union, arguing that "in the principles and make-up of NUSAS, the black students can never find expression for aspirations foremost in their minds". At a meeting with the NUSAS executive in March 1971, the SASO executive made clear that it was "not expedient" for it to cooperate with organisations led by or including whites – though the organisations did agree to remain in contact to exchange information as required. However, as Badat argues, SASO was not "anti-white": it broadly endorsed a vision of a future South Africa as a non-racial society, and some SASO activists maintained personal relationships with white activists, as did Biko with NUSAS's Rick Turner.

Race-based analysis

At least for its first half-decade, SASO – like the rest of the Black Consciousness movement – firmly eschewed

class analysis Class analysis is research in sociology, politics and economics from the point of view of the stratification of the society into dynamic classes. It implies that there is no universal or uniform social outlook, rather that there are fundamental c ...

in favour of a view of race as the central political divide. In this, as well as in its opposition to multiracialism, SASO stood apart from the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

(ANC), then operating in exile in Zambia. The ANC monitored SASO with interest from the outset, but favoured a Marxist analysis of apartheid. Indeed, portions of the

ANC Youth League The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) is the youth wing of the African National Congress (ANC). As set out in its constitution, the ANC Youth League is led by a National Executive Committee (NEC) and a National Working Committee (NW ...

advocated for closer cooperation with SASO precisely because they believed that the ANC was wrongly foregrounding class (and the

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

revolution) over race (the so-called national revolution). By July 1976, however, the SASO president himself, Diliza Mji, had begun to link apartheid to capitalist exploitation, imperialism, and class interests, reflecting a growing ideological debate within the Black Consciousness movement. The increased preoccupation of some SASO members with socialism was the result of increased exposure to the South African

workers' movement The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other. * The trade union movement ...

, to the ANC (through the ANC underground, Radio Freedom, and other propaganda), and to socialist-leaning

liberation movements A liberation movement is an organization or political movement leading a rebellion, or a non-violent social movement, against a colonial power or national government, often seeking independence based on a nationalist identity and an anti-imperiali ...

in Portugal and Mozambique.

Activities

Education and media

SASO's constitution identified as one of the organisation's aims the imperative to "project at all times the Black Consciousness image culturally, socially and educationally". One of the major platforms for this function – and for the development of Black Consciousness philosophy and doctrine – was SASO's official media organ, the ''SASO Newsletter.'' The newsletter was first published in August 1970, with an editorial note outlining its dual informative and educative aims, and ran until 1976. The best known feature in the newsletter was a regular series by Biko, under the ''

nom de plume A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

'' Frank Talk, entitled " I Write What I Like". Given SASO's position as a students' organisation, it paid particular attention to disrupting the "physical and intellectual isolation" and "indoctrination and intimidation" which Bantu Education imposed on black students. To this end, SASO organised "formation schools" on university campuses, aiming to provide forums in which students could apply Black Consciousness ideals to the consideration and debate of topical issues. SASO also organised educational and political activities at black high schools.

Community projects

At its first national formation school in December 1969, SASO agreed to a proposal, lodged by Biko, that "fieldwork" or "work among the people" should be one of SASO's "primary occupations". The 1970 SASO General Student's Council established a dedicated central committee on

community development The United Nations defines community development as "a process where community members come together to take collective action and generate solutions to common problems." It is a broad concept, applied to the practices of civic leaders, activists ...

, and in 1971 its approach to such initiatives was systematised under the so-called Action Training model (by 1972 refined as the Community Action and Development model). Community outreach was an activity familiar to former UCM and NUSAS members, and within SASO was partly motivated by concern about black people who lived in poverty. But it was also uniquely aligned to the Black Consciousness ideal of black self-affirmation and self-reliance. In addition, it was viewed as a means of educating, mobilising, and winning the trust of black communities. Specific projects pursued were wide-ranging but included "physical projects" (where students repaired schools or built houses during school holidays), as well as

literacy Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, hum ...

campaigns, skills seminars, and volunteering at clinics. In later years, SASO outreach activities were coordinated with those of other Black Consciousness organisations, particularly the BPC and the Black Community Programmes. Onkgopotse Ramothibi Tiro

Protest

Viewing Black Consciousness as "an attitude of mind, a way of life" more than as a tool for political activism, SASO was initially ambivalent about the use of public

protests A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration or remonstrance) is a public expression of objection, disapproval or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one. Protests can be thought of as acts of coopera ...

and demonstrations. It associated such demonstrations with NUSAS's liberal activism and – according to a motion adopted by the General Student Conference in 1970 – viewed them as "aimed at the white press and public" and as "deficient" because lacking "a strategic and continuous attempt to change the status quo". The same motion recommended that black students should participate only in protests "directed primarily at the Black population". In the winter of 1972, however, SASO was centrally involved in infamous student protests which shut down several black campuses across the country. The protests broke out with a sit-in by students at Turfloop in May 1972, after Turfloop expelled SASO activist Onkgopotse Tiro for having addressed the annual graduation ceremony with a fiery renunciation of apartheid and Bantu Education. Black students nationwide were galvanised by the heavy-handed response of the university and police, which effectively blockaded and then expelled the occupying students. A SASO regional formation school being held in Alice, near the University of Fort Hare, held an emergency meeting and drafted the so-called Alice Declaration, which called upon "all Black students oforce the Institutions/Universities to close down by boycotting lectures". According to historian Julian Brown, the 1972 protests marked a break with SASO's earlier policy and inaugurated a newfound "embrace of public and confrontational forms of protest". Perhaps the most prominent outcome of this change in policy was the rallies which SASO and the BPC co-organised in September 1974 in Durban and at Turfloop. The rallies aimed to demonstrate public support for the Mozambican liberation movement

Frelimo FRELIMO (; from the Portuguese , ) is a democratic socialist political party in Mozambique. It is the dominant party in Mozambique and has won a majority of the seats in the Assembly of the Republic in every election since the country's firs ...

, in the wake of the news that Portugal would grant Mozambique its

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

the following year. They garnered extensive public attention, were broken up by the

South African Police The South African Police (SAP) was the national police force and law enforcement agency in South Africa from 1913 to 1994; it was the ''de facto'' police force in the territory of South West Africa (Namibia) from 1939 to 1981. After South Af ...

, and were followed by a government crackdown on Black Consciousness leaders and organisations: the same evening, SASO's Durban offices were raided, as were the homes of several leaders, including Biko. Many leaders were arrested "as part of a general round up" of Black Consciousness activists.

Crackdown and aftermath

In the aftermath of the arrests which followed the 1974 pro-Frelimo rallies, the South African government in January 1975 charged the so-called SASO Nine with violations of the Terrorism Act. The nine were Saths Cooper, Strini Moodley, Aubrey Mokoape,

Mosiuoa Lekota Mosiuoa Gerard Patrick Lekota (born 13 August 1948) is a South African politician, who currently serves as the President and Leader of the Congress of the People since 16 December 2008. Previously as a member of the African National Congress, ...

, Nkwenkwe Nkomo, Zithulele Cindi, Muntu Myeza, Pandelani Nefolovhodwe and Kaborone Sedibe. Following a high-profile trial, all were found guilty of "encouraging and furthering feelings of hostility between the Black and White inhabitants of the Republic" and were sentenced to imprisonment, leaving SASO – and the BPC – effectively "leaderless". Biko's political activity at that point was severely circumscribed by the banning order against him. State repression, moreover, worsened after the 1976 Soweto Uprising, in which Black Consciousness movements played a leading role. In the crackdown that followed, the government, on 19 October 1977, banned SASO and various other Black Consciousness organisations, making the organisation and any association with it illegal. No clear successor organisation arose, although the Black Consciousness mantle was passed to a new generation of groups, including the

Azanian People's Organisation The Azanian People's Organisation (AZAPO) is a South African liberation movement and political party. The organisation's two student wings are the Azanian Students' Movement (AZASM) for high school learners and the other being for university leve ...

(Azapo). Many of the SASO trialists went on to hold office in Azapo – Cooper and Nefholovhodwe both served as Azapo president, as did SASO activist

Mosibudi Mangena Mosibudi Mangena (born 7 August 1947 in Tzaneen, Transvaal) is a South Africa politician, former President of the Azanian People's Organisation (AZAPO). He is also currently the honorary President of AZAPO while Strike Thokoane is the current Pr ...

. However, other former members of SASO joined

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

-aligned organisations: revived militancy and state repression drove many students into exile to train with the ANC's Umkhonto weSizwe, while, inside South Africa, Congress-aligned organisations began increasingly to dominate community organising (the so-called civics), the

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

movement, and, through the Congress of South African Students, the students' movement.

Notable members

National leaders of SASO included: * Steve Biko (inaugural president) * Barney Pityana (former president) * Rubin Phillip (former vice president) * Nkosazana Dlamini (former vice president) * Ben Langa (former secretary-general) * Abram Tiro (former organiser) * Mosioua Lekota (former organiser)

References

External links

Constitution of the South African Students' Organisation

South African Student Organisation
at

South African History Online The South African History Project (2001-2004) was established and initiated by Professor Kader Asmal, former Minister of Education in South Africa. This initiative followed after the publication of the Manifesto on Values, Education and Democra ...

{{Authority control Anti-Apartheid organisations Black Consciousness Movement Defunct student organisations in South Africa Groups of students' unions National liberation movements in Africa Student political organizations 1969 establishments in South Africa Student organizations established in 1969