EDUCATION AND BLACK STUDENTS’ CONSCIOUSNESS IN SOUTH AFRICA ( 1948-1977 )

Abstract

The present thesis is entitled: Education and Black Students Consciousness in South Africa with a special reference to the period 1948-77. The attempt of this work is to analyse the role of education and the black students’ consciousness in raising the Natives’ awareness and struggle for freedom between the period 1948, which marked the introduction of Apartheid by the election of the Afrikaner National Party, and the year 1977, which witnessed the death of Steve Biko who was the first student criticizing the racist legislative Acts which strengthened the Apartheid policy. The Nationalists wanted a White supremacy over all the races, especially the Blacks. Many Black organisations reacted then. The Black Student’ Consciousness Movement represented the educated elite as a political force to be taken into consideration and which made the Whites understand that the Blacks were people who needed freedom. Consequently, Apartheid started to break down by 1977.