By: Shea Karssing
In 1967 Rhodes University hosted the annual National Union of South African Students (Nusas) conference. Black delegates were told that they could not be accommodated in the university residences and the Vice-Chancellor banned all racially-mixed social gatherings. Along with many other delegates, Steve Biko walked out of the conference, an incident that contributed to the formation of the South African Students Association (Saso). Now Rhodes University’s Vice-Chancellor has written a book about it.
On Monday 19 October, National Press Freedom Day and the day commemorating the banning of black newspapers, Rhodes University hosted the book launch of Dr Saleem Badat’s Black Man, You Are On Your Own in a packed Arts Major lecture theatre. The book launch served as the University’s official commemoration of the day.
Nkosinathi Biko, CEO of the Steve Biko Foundation and son of Steve, approached Badat to republish a section from his 2002 book Black Student Politics from Saso to Sanso. Badat agreed, and the result is the compact, soft-cover book that aims to be scholarly but accessible.
The book discusses student politics with a particular focus on the formation of Saso, analysing its emergence as well as the ideological and political character shifts that took place within the organisation in the 1970s.
Badat said that there is much we can take away from organisations such as Saso. “The apartheid government ultimately failed to crush the political opposition. The members of Saso refused to be victims; they were intellectuals, thinkers and historical agents, the Vice-Chancellor said, adding that “student activists are growing ever-vaguer; it is useful to be aware of one’s own place in the stream of history.”
Even in a new South Africa, Saso’s brand of proactive energy should not be forgotten. Badat said the issues raised by black consciousness “remain highly relevant today”. “We must tackle them boldly with the energetic, uncompromising, intellectual manner of Biko and the Saso generation. The rest you can read in the book…” the Vice-Chancellor concluded.
And it seems many who attended decided to do so, leaving the auditorium harnessed by history and clutching a copy.
Read even more: Dr Badat's book launch