The greatest weapon in the hand of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
This is white man’s integration, an integration based on exploitative values.
Tradition has it that whenever a group of people has tasted the lovely fruits of wealth, security and prestige it begins to find it more comfortable to believe in the obvious lie and accept that it alone is entitled to privilege.
The system concedes nothing without demand, for it formulates its very method of operation on the basis that the ignorant will learn to know, the child will grow into an adult and therefore demands will begin to be made. It gears itself to resist demands in whatever way it sees fit.
WOMEN must be at the forefront of nation-building to bring the South African citizenry together and, therefore, develop a whole new ethos of human co-existence.
We are experiencing new problems every day and whatever we do adds to the richness of our cultural heritage as long as it has man as its centre.
Black Consciousness is in essence the realization by the black man of the need to rally together with his brothers around the cause of their oppression.
The power of a movement lies in the fact that it can indeed change the habits of people. This change is not the result of force but of dedication, of moral persuasion.
Black Consciousness therefore takes cognizance of the deliberateness of God’s plan in creating Black people black.
We believe in the inherent goodness of man.
A people without a positive history is like a vehicle without an engine.
The logic behind white domination is to prepare the black man for the subservient role in this country.
Part of the approach envisaged in bringing about Black Consciousness has to be directed to the past, to seek to rewrite the history of the black man and to produce in it the heroes who form the core of the African background.
In all fields black consciousness seeks to talk to the black man in a language that is his own.
Apartheid – both petty and grand – is obviously evil. Nothing can justify the arrogant assumption that a clique of foreigners has the right to decide on the lives of a majority.
If you want to say something radical, you should dress conservatively.
The essence of politics is to direct oneself to the group which wields power.
I think the central theme about black society is that it has got elements of a defeated society.
Instead of involving themselves in an all-out attempt to stamp out racism from their white society, liberals waste a lot of time trying to prove to as many blacks as they can find that they are liberal.
No group, however benevolent, can ever hand power to the vanquished on a plate.
We regard our living together not as an unfortunate mishap warranting endless competition among us but as a deliberate act of God to make us a community of brothers and sisters jointly involved in the quest for a composite answer to the varied problems of life. Hence in all we do we always place man first and hence all our action is usually joint community oriented action rather than the individualism.” – Steven Biko.