Textual Commentary on Black Souls in White Skins in I Write What I Like by Steve Biko - Literature review Example

Textual Commentary on ‘Black Souls in White Skins’ in ‘I Write What I Like’ by Steve Biko By Textual Commentary on ‘Black Souls in White Skins’ in ‘I Write What I Like’ by Steve Biko Between 1967 and 1977, the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa inspired a significant and “coherent body of thought”.1 The Black Consciousness Movement started out as a student initiative and grew into an educational tool for mobilising “activity” as opposed to “activism”.2 Steven Biko, an enthusiastic Black leader during the 1960s is credited with founding the Black Consciousness Movement. Biko’s philosophical message corresponds with black theology as it was heavily themed with encouraging Blacks to depend on themselves rather than White liberals to successfully fight apartheid.3 Kee argues that Black Consciousness’s philosophy was founded on Black theology which proposes that God will not solve our problems.4 Biko’s Black Souls in White Skins embodies the concept of self-help as captured by the Black Consciousness Movement and black theology which is a Christian expression and rejection of oppression as experienced by Blacks.5 Initially President of the South Africa Student Organization (SASO) the movement that organized the Black Consciousness Movement, Biko subsequently became SASO’s Publications’ chairman. The SASO organized programmes which involved training and studies in a number of subjects such as economics, theology, poetry, aesthetics, culture and politics. The programmes resulted in publications which included Biko’s column, I Write What I Like published under Frank Talk and appeared in SASO’s Newsletter in 1970.6 Black Souls in White Skins was Biko’s first article in his column I Write What I Like.7 As was characteristic of the Black Consciousness Movement, Biko’s Black Souls targeted the motives of the White liberals whom he called “people who say that they have black souls wrapped up in white skins.”8 Biko questioned the authenticity of their claim that they sympathized with the “black struggles” against apartheid.9 In challenging this claim, Biko immediately draws attention to fact that it is questionable whether or not White liberals can speak as an authority for Blacks and what bothers him even more is that Black people have enabled White liberals by actually believing them “for so long”.10 Biko’s Black Souls reads as a rejection of White liberal “patronage” in that Biko took exception to the idea that Whites could pass judgement on who qualified as worthy Blacks and what could be good for worthy Blacks. Biko observed that the White liberals lead a campaign that was entirely artificial in nature in that it merely forecasted a convenient type of integration that favoured White supremacy under apartheid. According to Biko, the White liberals’ efforts were marked by artificial integration which White organizations dominated and ended up with “Whites doing all the talking and the blacks listening.”11 Biko’s Black Souls therefore adopts Black theological thinking in that he expresses the view that Blacks are also complicit in their oppression and that it is a sin to sit back and accept the situations on the premise that Blacks are innocent victims of apartheid. Black theology takes the position that God Himself is a “militant God” and as such God is opposed to the evils associated with oppression on the part of White supremacy.12 God will not become directly involved and solve these problems for Black people. Therefore Black people must shoulder the responsibility for eradicating oppression themselves.13 Biko’s Black Souls pointed out Black’s complicity in their situation under apartheid in a way that corresponds with Black theology’s idea of self-help. In this regard, Biko argued that apartheid will not be eliminated unless and until Blacks shed themselves of their inferiority and rejected the idea of White superiority. Adhering to White liberalism was one way of perpetuating this sin. By listening to White liberals and accepting that they knew what was good for Blacks and how best to achieve integration, Blacks were essentially giving expression to the idea that they were inferior to Whites. Moreover, Biko’s Black Souls questioned the motives of White liberals in their support of integration and the cessation of apartheid. To begin with, Biko questioned whether or not Whites were in fact more qualified than the Blacks were to establish and argue for what was best suited to Blacks for their development and for integration. In Black Souls, Biko wondered if White liberals were actually more committed toward retaining “the status quo”.14 Biko argued that the White liberals: Vacillate between the two worlds, verbalising all the complaints of the blacks beautifully while skilfully articulating what suits them from the exclusive pool of white privilege. But ask them for a moment to give a concrete meaningful programme that they intend adopting, then you will see on whose side they really are.15 Thus a recurrent theme in Biko’s Black Souls is the Black theology’s concept of self-help and Blacks’ complicity in accepting their situation under White supremacy. Biko’s Black Souls takes the position that Blacks enabled White Liberals by accepting their artificial support. For Biko, White liberals were very good at articulating their empathy but very short on given meaningful expression to that empathy. This alone should have alerted Blacks to the fact that White liberals were not doing anything to change the status quo in South Africa. Blacks were therefore encouraged by Black Souls to reject White liberalism and to accept the reality that White liberalism conducted themselves in a way that was designed to support the status quo so that they may perpetuate the dominance of Whites in politics, the economy and cultural norms and practices. Black Souls argued that the White liberals were only interested in maintaining appearances for their own ends. They essentially wanted Blacks to believe that the White liberals were in fact attempting to facilitate change for the advantage of Blacks. But the truth was, White liberals were only attempting to ward of Black hostilities and by doing so were enabling White supremacy. According to Mzamane et. al., Biko’s Black Souls expresses the view that White liberals were superficially identifying with Black oppression “for what they could salvage for themselves or to assuage their consciences.”16 Again the message implicit in Biko’s Black Souls corresponds with the philosophy espoused by Black Theology. Just as Black Theology advocated for self-help, Biko’s Black Souls likewise advocated for self-help. Biko’s Black Souls in rejecting the assistance of White Liberals and rationalising the reasons for rejecting White Liberals’ assistance, was in effect urging Blacks to be self-reliant. Self-reliance was the cornerstone of the Black Consciousness movement. Black South Africans were encouraged to “take their own destiny in their own hands.”17 Black theology which is a “situational” philosophy encourages blacks to interpret Christianity in the context of their particular situations.18 During apartheid, oppression and segregation was the situation in which Blacks were asked to interpret Christianity. In this regard, Blacks must come together in solidity and reject the conventional Christian message that one must merely comply with the law and focus on achieving social justice.19 Blacks, in rejecting conventional Christianity and adopting Black theology must take responsibility for the direction of their own lives. This meant rejecting White liberals as the voice of the black situation and getting behind self-help. The Black Consciousness Movement as expressed by the SASO in which Biko was significantly influential advocated for and stressed “self-reliance”.20 SASO encouraged Blacks to shoulder responsibility for their own direction and development and in doing so it was imperative that they rejected the assistance of White liberals. In fact the General Students’ Council of the SASO passed a resolution which expressed the view that integration would only be effective if was premised on equality and partnerships founded on equality. An imperative first step was for Blacks to “close their ranks to form themselves into a solid group” with a view to opposing “definite racism that is meted out by the White society” and to “work out their own direction clearly and bargain from a position of strength”.21 Biko’s Black Souls not only gave expression to this message which is a philosophy of Black theology, but also articulated Black theology’s philosophy of complicity and sin on the part of Blacks. Blacks were complicit in their own oppression by not only adhering to White Liberal leadership, but also by embracing White norms and even aspiring to be accepted by Whites. As Biko wrote in Black Souls, Blacks: ...have been made to feel inferior for so long that for them it is comforting to drink tea, wine or beer with whites who seem to treat them as equals. This served to boost up their own ego to the extent of making them feel slightly superior to those blacks who do not get similar treatment from whites.22 Thus, Blacks were not solidifying as a group in way that was consistent with Black theology. Biko’s Black Souls criticizes the Blacks in that they too were responsible for their own situation. Rather than using their energy and resources for the benefit of their own people, blacks were pandering to White ideas. Rather than sitting around with Whites and aspiring to be privileged in White terms, Blacks should be using their energy and resources to educate their own about their own situation and attempt to identify and plan a resolution with their own people. Biko’s Black Souls accused Blacks who listened and accepted the White liberals’ support of interfering with meaningful progress for Blacks and the reversal of apartheid. Blacks were therefore urged to reject the White liberal ideology which positioned Whites as their teacher and Blacks as their pupils. Biko’s Black Souls adopts Black theology relative to black solidarity further by defending his anti-White liberalism stance. Biko argues that White Liberals “when blacks” take the position that they want to assume responsibility for meaningful change for themselves, “all White liberals shout blue murder”.23 White liberals went so far as to accuse Blacks of countering white racism with black racism. The reality is however, Whites were only interested in advancing their own values and could not realistically advance the interests and values of Blacks. Biko’s Black Souls draws attention to the need for black solidity by demonstrating the artificial nature of the White liberals claim that Black Consciousness was advocating Black racism. According to Biko’s Black Souls Blacks could not be credibly accused of Black racism in an apartheid system such as that existing in South Africa. Since racial discrimination is defined as subjugation by one group by another, there was no realistic way in which Blacks could be accused of racial discrimination. Biko’s Black Souls’ adoption of the Black theology’s call for solidarity was all the more significant considering Biko’s eventual death. Biko died in police custody on 12 September 1977 and it was subsequently determined that the cause of death was brain damage. The significance of Biko’s writings in I Write What I like is manifested by his eventual arrest and death. Biko was arrested at this home in August 1977 under the Terrorism Act under which he would be detained for at least 6 months without the necessity of being formally charged with an offence. At the time, the security police were on a mission to silence Biko and wanted to prove that his writings were “inflammatory” and inciting disaffection and disorder.24 It therefore follows that Biko’s Black Souls only confirmed his contention that the whites were determined to maintain the status quo and that black solidarity was a threat to White supremacy. Biko’s writing and its expression of Black Consciousness and Black theology was perceived as a significant threat to White supremacy and the apartheid system. His call for solidarity as expressed in Black Souls is therefore largely responsible for the unrest and disaffection that threatened the apartheid system. Arguably, Biko’s Black Souls’ contention that Blacks’ acceptance of White values and merely obeying the laws was complicit in the perpetuation of White supremacy was proven by his arrest and subsequent death in police custody. Biko’s arrest and death in police custody only proves that his writing and the ideology expressed in his writing was perceived as a serious threat to the apartheid system. Bibliography Biko, S. (1978). “Black Souls in White Skins?” in Biko, S. (Author). I Write What I Like. Oxford, UK Heineman Education Limited, Ch. 5. Cherry, J. and Gibbs, P. (2006). “The Liberation Struggle in the Eastern Cape.” In South African Education Trust. (Ed.) The Road to Democracy in South Africa: 1970-1980, Vol. 2. University of South Africa, Unisa Press, Ch. 11. Clark, D. (2009). South Africa the People. Ontario, Canada: Crabtree Publishing. Kee, A. (2006). The Rise and Demise of Black Theology. Hants, England: Ashgate Publishing Limited. Mzamane, M. V.; Maaba, B. and Biko, N. (2006). “The Black Consciousness Movement.” In South African Education Trust. (Ed.) The Road to Democracy in South Africa: 1970-1980, Vol. 2. University of South Africa, Unisa Press, Ch. 3. Pang, S. Y. (2007). “A Significance of South African Black Theology as a Postcolonial Theology in the Making.” Theological Forum, Vol. 50: 115-133. Switzer, L. (2000). South Africa’s Resistance Press: Alternative Voices in the Law Generation Under Apartheid. US: University of Ohio Press. Read More