Finding voice, vocabulary and community. The UWC Student Movement 1972-1976
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Date
2014-06
Authors
Thomas, Cornelius
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of the Humanities, University of the Free State
Abstract
This article delves into an activist vocabulary adopted by Coloured students at the University of the
Western Cape (UWC) in the early- to mid-1970s. It asks what language these students used to make
meaningful in their solidaristic opposition to apartheid South Africa, and how they found their voice
after the relative Coloured quiescence in the 1960s. The article specifically interrogates how, in the
context of black consciousness, Coloured students acquired, appropriated and applied the concepts of
“conscientization”, “black”, “liberation theology”, and “community”. Homing in on the period 1970
to 1976, it unfolds a student protest narrative, including the Demas tie affair (1970), SASO-UWC’s
activism (1972-1974), the UWC students’ response to community (1975-1976), and the Soweto uprising
(1976). It finds a new conversation and activism that found expression “in the community”. As an autoethnographic
and qualitative narrative piece, the article scripts the unfolding of a new phenomenon in
Coloured protest, one which shows a departure from an older (Non-European Unity Movement) political
language and makes “audible” the student voice in community inclusive anti-apartheid activism. It
shines new light on a moment in Coloured history that linked UWC students nationally and transformed
the struggle in organic and instrumentalist ways.
Description
Keywords
Concscientization, Black consciousness, Students, Activism, Protest(-s), Liberation theology, Community, Apartheid
Citation
Thomas, C. (2014). Finding voice, vocabulary and community. The UWC Student Movement 1972-1976. Journal for Contemporary History, 39(1), 19-37.