History Question Answers - Black South Africans

1. Black South Africans had terrible conditions to live in township’s. In source A they are describe as, “appalling”, “insufficient housing”, “poor sanitation” and “overcrowded schools.”
2. In source A one of the the ways propaganda techniques are used are appealing to the audience’s sense of guilt, “conditions in townships were appalling(terrible).” The other use of propaganda techniques is identifying a clear enemy, “the grand plan was for whites to remain citizens of South Africa, while blacks would become citizens of their ethnic homelands.” But the enemy was not whites but rather the Apartheid government.
3. Steve Biko gives two main reasons for the Soweto Uprising. The first reason being how there was a simple lack of patience by the young folk with the government which is refusing to change, refusing the change in the educational sphere, which is where they are directing themselves and the other reason being refusing change in a broader political situation.
4. The unrest was highly significant because when the government responded to the student protests showing that they had the power which normally makes the protest go away but this time the students did not go, “but here for once they met a student group which was not not prepared to be thrown around all the time.” The other reason being how students were the fuel behind all the protests and how they were not just protesting against something small but rather against the whole “Bantu education, and they meant it.”
5. The Apartheid government did not want to be challenged and that was exactly what black students did, they challenged the Apartheid government.  In source A it shows us how, “whites were citizens of South Africa but blacks would only become citizens of their ethnic homelands- even if they had never been there.” This showed division and a feeling of ‘them’ vs ‘us’ and children of Soweto could not agree with this plan.  The final thing that broken was them having to accept being taught in Afrikaans. In source B, youngsters stood up against this and protested against being taught in Afrikaans and which meant they were talking about the Bantu education system. The Apartheid government felt threated and the responded with force.
6. Steve Biko did not refer to Black consciousness as ‘non-white consciousness’ because he wanted the black people of South Africa to be proud of who they are and what race they are. Black consciousness means merely by describing yourself as black you have started on a road towards emancipation, you have committed yourself to fight against all forces that seek to use your blackness as a stamp that marks you out as a subservient being. The idea of Black consciousness was to make black people refuse to be called ‘non-white’ because that is not what they are. Steve Biko wanted to let the black population of South Africa be proud of their roots and stand up against their oppressor and this hopefully would help with more black people fighting against the system of Apartheid.
7. I believe Steve Biko means if the oppressor holds the oppressed mind in his hands he holds all the power then but he holds it in a twisted evil way. Black people came to the point where they believe they were not good enough for freedom and believed that all they were is to be oppressed. While the oppressor just has the most potent weapon because he holds the mind of the oppressed. Steve Biko wanted black people to stand up against this and that blacks should needed to affirm their own humanity by overcoming their fears and believing themselves worthy of freedom.
8. The source is reliable to a historian studying the factors of the Soweto Uprising because it shows the build up to Soweto and gives background information. The source focuses in on Tsiesti Mashinini’s role in the mobilizing of students. So it is biased at some point because it gives a one sided story of what happened in Soweto but the greater of the source is reliable to the use of a historian because it focuses on the Soweto Uprising. The only downfall is the date of the source being in 2016 but it gives us a better overview of what happened in Soweto from Mashinini’s point of view.
9. UHURU stimulated Mashinini’s fighting spirit by making him focus on other parts of Africa like Mozambique and Nambia and this fueled his energy to get South Africa to its independence. UHURU motivated him to have a wider concept in his ideologies by making him look at the whole of Africa rather than just focusing on South Africa. Mashinini’s fighting spirit made him mobilize students in Soweto.
10. 10

1. Philosophy
2. Liberation
3. Heritage
4. Ethnic institutionalisation

1. It emerged from the aspirations and struggles of high school students residing primarily in the Transvaal townships.
2. The Black People Convention(BPC) was formed after a three day long conference in Pietermaritzburg. Black students under the guiding principle that they identified themselves firstly as black before being students formed this movement. The movement managed to bring together about seventy different black consciousness groups and associations under one umbrella. Because of its racial exclusivity, the government initially welcomed it as an endorsement of racial segregation and apartheid policies.
3. The Black Power movement was a political movement that intended to achieve Black Power. During the civil rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s, black activists experimented with various forms of self-advocacy, ranging from political lobbying to armed struggle. The movement was originally inspired by the philosophies of pan-Africanism, black nationalism, and socialism, as well as by contemporary events like the Cuban Revolution and the decolonization of Africa. 

12.  The statistics of the Soweto uprising in source F show us, the numbers of what happened because it shows the concept of what happened in relation to numbers and it also helps frame the point in an easier way that there is a reference point to make the concepts clearer and it gives the historian statistics to reference too.

13.  The cartoonist is anti-Apartheid and this is shown through visual and textual clues. On the poster ‘skool’ is written instead of saying ‘school’ or saying ‘isikole’ and this just shows how the Apartheid system tried to force Afrikaans onto the population of South Africa. A visual clue of the of the smoke shows us how Apartheid is polluting our nation and is leaving a mark and is ruining our South Africa. Another visual clue is the burning torch which is related to the Olympics and the clue shows how Apartheid got us banned from the Olympics from 1964 to 1988 and this was because of the sporting boycott of South Africa during the Apartheid era.