Abstract
Abstract : This thesis explores the meaning and articulation of gender in the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM). This movement replaced the African National Congress (ANC) as the vanguard of the national liberation movement in 1968-1977. Studies of women’s roles in the national liberation movement have portrayed them mainly as auxiliary or significant ‘others.’ The ANC Women’s League and the Federation of South African Women have been used as a benchmark in analysing women’s resistance against Apartheid and have been regarded as the driving force behind the women’s liberation movement. However, the BCM provided an opportunity for women to participate in public politics as formal members. Women in the BCM not only redefined their identity as black people struggling against Apartheid, but also as black women living in oppressive patriarchal structures. This significantly challenged female domesticity and traditional gender norms in national politics. Women leaders in the BCM were given ‘honorary male’ status, which has undermined their agency in the formulation, implementation and practice of black consciousness philosophy. This thesis therefore investigates the articulations and meanings of gender in the BCM, how women struggled for gender equality within the movement and how this could have changed attitudes about masculinity and femininity within the BCM and the national liberation movement. The study explores the political experiences of women in the BCM using biographies and interviews, instead of focusing on organisational histories which tend to silence women’s voices. The study has found that women in the BCM asserted themselves as women in a seemingly masculinist environment, that the period between 1968-1977 was a crucial moment in which black women were empowered to actively oppose patriarchal norms which subordinated them in the national liberation movement.
M.A. (Historical Studies)