using my friends essay rewrite this using this question What is the significance of Black Power/Black Consciousness? only two pages please use at least one outside source. 1. 2-page minimum critical
Brianna Hicks Blair Proctor Introduction to Africa BLK 200_ 01 22 November 2019 Critical Reflection 3 Bantu Stephen Biko was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he was at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign known as the Black Consciousness Movement during the late 1960s and 1970s. Bobby Seale and Huey P Newton are African-American political activists,co-founders and national chairmans of the Black Panther Party . Theses activist all led an imperative movement to reconstruct the life of a african person. The Black Consciousness Movement was a anti-Apartheid activist movement that emer ged 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 Africanist Congress leadership after the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960. Its objectives were to unite all black victims of white racism, to ensure that blacks stopped depending on white or ganizations working for their benefit, and eventually , to form an independent black state. Black Panther Party , original name Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, African American revolutionary party , founded in 1966 in Oakland , California.The party’ s original purpose was to patrol African American neighbourhoods to protect residents from acts of police brutality . The Panthers eventually developed into a Marxist revolutionary group that called for the arming of all African Americans , the exemption of African Americans from the draft and from all sanctions of so-called white America, the release of all African Americans from jail, and the payment of compensation to African Americans for centuries of exploitation by white Americans. At its peak in the late 1960s, Panther membership exceeded 2,000, and the or ganization operated chapters in several major American cities. The term Black Consciousness stems from American educator W . E. B. Du Bois 's evaluation of the double consciousness of American blacks being taught what they feel inside to be lies about the weakness and cowardice of their race. This line of thought was also reflected in the Pan-Africanist , Marcus Garvey , Biko's understanding of these thinkers was further shaped through the lens of postcolonial thinkers such as Frantz Fanon .Biko reflects the concern for the existential struggle of the black person as a human being, dignified and proud of his blackness, in spite of the oppression of colonialism. The aim of this global movement of black thinkers was to build black consciousness and African consciousness, which they felt had been suppressed under colonialism Part of the insight of the Black Consciousness Movement was in understanding that black liberation would not only come from imagining and fighting for structural political changes, as older movements like the ANC did, but also from psychological transformation in the minds of black people themselves. This analysis suggested that to take power , black people had to believe in the value of their blackness. That is, if black people believed in democracy , but did not believe in their own value, they would not truly be committed to gaining power . Both movements had specific similarities and dif ferences that can be discussed.
One similarity that both groups have in common was they were fighting for the liberation of the african people. The Black Consciousness Movement heavily supported protests against the policies of the apartheid regime which led to the Soweto uprising in June 1976. The protests began when it was decreed that black students be forced to learn Afrikaans, and that many secondary school classes were to be taught in that language. The Black Consciousness movement was tired of the oppression in south africa, so they used protesting as a symbol of unification against the whites. The blacks unifying was a symbol that solidarity is true to come and that there will be no tolerance for the white racism. In the black panther movement, how they fought for liberation of the african american people was with force. According to the movie, they forced racist white people to listen and be in tune with what was going on. They did this because this party dressed and moved in a distinctive way so people knew it was them. Also the black panther movement confronted the police brutality . They fought the police with their weapons and the police had their weapons. Another similarity that they have in common is that they both had their movements around the same time but just in dif ferent places. The black consciousness movement started in the mid 1960s in south africa. The black panther party was founded in 1966 in Oakland , California. This is an imperative similarity because both movements were in two dif ferent continents and merely around the same time and fighting for liberation and change. That means that white racism, exploitation, oppression, and mar ginalization was just not happening in south africa as we have already learned. But in the united states white racism, exploitation, oppression, and mar ginalization was happening as well. This is really important because it shows how apartheid wasnt just a south african thing. Apartheid was happening in the US as well. The definition of apaprtheid is a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race. So when we discuss apartheid the connatation shouldnt be south africa based. Apartheid can happen anywhere at any time. One dif ference between the black consciousness movement and the black party movement was the dif ference between peace and violence. The black conciousness movemnet was the peaceful movement in comparison to th eblack panther party who carried guns and was ready to fight. In the year 1959, Although the ANC and others opposed to apartheid had initially focused on non-violent campaigns, the brutality of the Sharpeville massacre of 21 March 1960 caused many blacks to embrace the idea of violent resistance to apartheid. But Biko took the more psychological aspect of it. Y es he was definitely for the physical liberation but he was mostly for the psychological liberation. The liberation of the mind. The consciousness that black people are great and they don't have to assimilate. On the other hand the black panther party moved more with the teachings of Malcom X. Malcom X taught if you want change you have to violently take it because the “enemy” only knows violence. So the black panther movement had guns and they fought all the opposers. As you can see the black consciousness movement and the black panther party has their distinctive similarities and dif ferences. But they both had in mind to get black people their liberation and limit the white racism, exploitation, mar ginalization, and oppression.
