BOOK REVIEWS

Reassessing the Role of Black Consciousness in the Anti-Apartheid Struggle

Ian Macqueen, Black Consciousness and Progressive Movements under Apartheid
University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, Pietermaritzburg, 2018
268 pp
ISBN 978-1-86914-388-6
R375.00 (paperback)

Prior to the appearance of Black Consciousness and the Progressive Movement under Apartheid, much of what was written on the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) relied on the limited archive, interpretation, and misleading notions about the BCM. That literature restricted itself to an inquiry into the ideological and organisational struggle. In part, this literature distorts the concept of 'black consciousness' as a black organisation that was against multiracialism. In a deft analysis, Ian Macqueen adds valuable new material by presenting the BCM from a different angle. He undertakes the unenviable task of deciphering a body of historical literature fraught with inaccuracies, distortions and biases. He untangles the confusion that misleads many scholars and the general public about the role of the BCM.

Macqueen achieves his objective by pursuing a meticulous study of unexplored archives which reveal how both the BCM and white activists maintained an antiapartheid dialogue that featured significantly in shared spaces, such as the offices in Beatrice Street, Durban, and in different urban spaces of South Africa. Yet until this study was published, no monograph had yet provided an analysis of how the birth of the BCM inspired the beginning of the 'real dialogue' between black and white activists in the 1970s. This dialogue also points out three important historical factors. Firstly, the symbiotic relationship between black and white activists. Secondly, the intimate interrelationship between black and white Christians. Finally, Macqueen also examines the significance of non-racial progressive spaces, such as Diakonia House, and other spaces in various South African cities.

More importantly, Macqueen has performed a great service for all those who are interested in the BCM, Christian movements and the liberation struggle by unearthing new archival material in this monograph. He uses both oral histories and archival material to challenge scholars to rethink what can and cannot be known about the BCM. This archive has forced the popular narrative to shift in dramatic ways by showing the BCM's conditional cooperation with whites only if they endorsed the anti-apartheid struggle.

To illustrate his point, Macqueen covers a variety of complex topics in different chapters and does so proficiently by presenting a diverse historical understanding of the BCM and its relationship with radical Christian movements, trade unionism, feminism and student radicalism in the 1970s. By focusing on the BCM's complex relations and interactions with other individuals (including white liberals), Macqueen reveals that the movement was neither elitist, anti-white, nor separatist. In addition, he unravels how salient anti-apartheid small organisations, such as the radical black and white Christians and other movements became inspirational towards the formation of the BCM in the 1970s. More than anything else, Macqueen shows how white liberals such as Richard Turner forged bonds of deep friendship and mutual recognition with black people. This motivated others for whom a revulsion against social injustice was motivation enough to engage in the struggle.

The book captures the common intent of all small anti-apartheid organisations. It raises the level of awareness among the current young, radicalised generation, particularly those who advocate the ideological stance of economic freedom and the 'Fees Must Fall' movement. The monograph enriches our understanding that black and white students, academics, trade unionists and non-academics were all driving forces behind the formation of the BCM's resistance to oppressive conditions. In the book, there is also a separate section dedicated to black theology where the author engages constructively with the links between theology and resistance. In my opinion, this is a scholarly account that connects the BCM and theology and carries the theological dialogue further in each case.

In this monograph, the reader is given the benefit of every insight and every possible approach to the critical scrutiny of the BCM's connection to black theology in the twentieth century. However, there is a weakness in this otherwise strong work which ought to be noted. In his engagement with black theology, Macqueen does not provide a sufficiently broad historical context, nor does he offer analysis beyond the period under review and therefore does not take us back to the genesis of black theology and resistance, in particular to the body of literature that presents the relationship between black consciousness and Ethiopianism. This misses the important insight that the Ethiopian secessionist movements of the 19th century were the forerunners of the black theology movement of the late 1960s. Even so, it is to be acknowledged that Macqueen's book Black Consciousness provides a sound basis for raising broader questions regarding connections between the BCM's theology and the black struggle against colonialism of the previous century. It also opens up debate on race relations and its connection to the struggle against apartheid, ideology and process in varying black experiences, and also on the scope of radicalism. This monograph is a sound contribution to the historiography, one which should be read by anyone who desires to make sense of the black and white experience under apartheid.

Vusumuzi Kumalo

Department of History and Political Science, Nelson Mandela University