Black Consiousness as a philosophy was started in 1968 with Steve Biko as its most
prominent proponent. Black Consciousness was started during the lull in resistance
politics in the years after the African National Congress (ANC) and Pan Africanist
Congress (PAC) were banned in April 1960.

Many of the leadership and rank and file members of the ANC and PAC were either jailed
or went into exile. During this crackdown and in the years that followed, the government
presented itself as a powerful system that would meet any opposition with jailing, killing
and no mercy.

Through apartheid white Western culture was presented as good and the cultures of the
opressed communities as barbaric. History became relevant only in as much as it reflected
White people. These were the circumstances under which the Black Consciousness Movement
was formed.

The BCM is a mass movement which operates through various organisational forms. This
means that BCM is not a movement that was born all at once in one single occasion. The
evolution of political thought and its actualisation in practise expressed itself in terms
of the establishment of organisational forms that sought to answer all the concrete
demands and broaden the base for the implementation of the programme for liberation.

This process started with the birth of the South African Students Organisation (SASO).
SASO was formed from a caucus of black students within the University Christian Movement
who decided that a separate political organisation of Africans, Indians and
"Coloreds" was essential if blacks were ever to take the initiative in the South
African liberation struggle. They felt that the multiracial organisations which had filled
the vacuum left by the banning of the ANC and PAC in 1960 had left blacks feeling inferior
and unable to take militant action. The organisation was founded 15 miles south of Durban
at the Wentworth Medical School, the only educational institution in South Africa attended
by a significant number of Indian, "Colored" and African students. As the first
president of SASO and a Wentworth student, Biko spent time consolidating an alliance among
the three black population groups.

SASO acting in co-ordination with other black national and community organisations,
founded a broad political base of Black people, the Black People’s Convention (BPC).

From as early as 1974 BCM cadres had been compelled to flee from South Africa. The
Frelimo rallies were the first action programme that resulted in the forced departure of a
large number of the activists of the movement. In this action programme, the BCM had
organised rallies across the country to congratulate Frelimo and the people of Mozambique
for their victory. These rallies were banned by the racist regime. Inspite of the ban, BCM
went ahead and held the rallies. The harrasment that followed forced a large number of BCM
cadres to flee the country.

One other specific area of interest for the BCM activities concerned the youth. It was
felt that special programmes had to be set up for peculiar problems and development
possibilities of the youth. Out of this, the National Youth Organisation (NAYO) was
founded. Within the youth organisation there was a special organ directed at the youth in
secondary and high schools. This was the South African Students’ Movement (SASM). It
was actually this section that sparked off the uprising that exploded in June 16th 1976.
After these uprisings more cadres and almost the whole leadership was put behind bars.

In August 1977 Steve Biko was detained, for three weeks he was systematically beaten
until he died on September 12. The BCM got banned on October 19th 1977.

The Azanian People’s organisation (AZAPO) was formed in 1978 to carry on the work
of the liberation as an overt organisation after the government banned a host of BCM
organisations in October 1977. AZAPO has several sister organisations inside the country.
These are the Azanian Youth Organisation (AZAYO), Azanian Student Movement (AZASM) for
primary and secondary students, Azanian Students Convention (AZASCO) for tertiary and
post-secondary students and Imbeleko Womens Organisation. AZAPO. To ensure efficacy and a
more profound penetration into the masses, AZAPO established a number of secretariats with
each having a committee that facilitates its operations and programmes. These secretariats
were that of Education, Health, Labour, Legal Affairs, Urban and Rural Development and
Women’s Affairs.

The presence of large numbers of BCM cadres in exile pointed towards the need to form
an external wing. This external wing known as the Black Consciousness Movement of Azania,
BCM(A) was formed in April 1980 in Brixton, London in England. BCM(A) operated from nine
regions based in the following countries and places, Botswana, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Nigeria,
Zambia, Europe, Britain, USA and Canada. The organisation was led by a thirteen-member
central committee.Each of the nine regions operated through regional executive committees
consisting of at least six members. These members were tasked with taking charge of all
the organisations activities in their respective regions and were answerable to the
general members in those regions as well as to the Central Committee.

The BCM was charged with the tasks, inter alia, of working for unity with the older
liberation movements, campaigning for international solidarity with the struggle inside
the country and establishing a military wing. Consequently, a military wing the Azanian
Liberation Army (AZANLA) was formed.

On 2nd February 1990 the regime unbanned all liberation organisations including the 17
BCM organisations which were banned on 19th October 1977. BCM(A) came back formally to
South Africa around mid-July 1994. In South Africa they co-operated with their sister
organisation AZAPO until a dissolution congress was held in the second week of September
1994. These organisations merged under one name, AZAPO.