South African Students Organization

History

In 1969, Steve Biko founded the South African Students Organization (SASO). SASO embodies Biko’s vision of Black Consciousness because its membership is entirely non-white and its goals reflect the needs of its constituency. It was organized to build a strong, unified black community that was proud of its culture and aware of its political power. The organization was premised on the idea that blacks must lead the fight against apartheid, but also recognized the need for white cooperation and support. To this end, it sought to first build a strong black community, but also created a structure that would enable it to form alliances with like-minded white organizations.

Its non-white orientation was initially very controversial because it was the first mainstream group to adopt such a stance. Before SASO was created, most black students participated in the National Union of South African Students Congress (NUSAS), an integrated organization working against apartheid. Rifts in the organization emerged when black members realized that the overwhelmingly-white leadership was not as committed to the campaign as the black students, and were not willing to take strong stands against all forms of oppression. Finally, at the 1967 annual conference, black students were forced to stay in a church building away from campus, while white students were given rooms in residential dorms much closer to the conference site. This segregation, and the lack of white student complaints about it, convinced the black members that they were not valued in the organization and confirmed the idea that even well-intentioned whites were not as dedicated to ending apartheid. Biko and other student leaders founded SASO just over a year later.

Goals

1) To crystallize the needs and aspirations of the non-white students and to seek to make known their grievances.

2) Where possible to put into effect programmes designed to meet the needs of the non-white students and to act on a collective basis in an effort to solve some of the problems which beset the centres individually.

3) To heighten the degree of contact not only amongst the non-white students but also amongst these and the rest of the South African student population, to make the non-white students accepted on their own terms as an integral part of the South African student community.

4) To establish a solid identiy amongst the non-white students and to ensure that these students are always treated with the dignity and respsect they deserve.

5) To protect the interests of the member centres and to act as a pressure group on all institutions and organisations for the benefit of the non-white students.

6) To boost up the morale of non-white students, to heighten their own confidence in themselves and to contribute largely to the direction of throught taken by the various institutions on social, political and other current topics.

Structure

SASO's organization was based on semi-autonomous student power bases. Each base advocated on behalf of students locally to improve conditions on campuses in communities around the country. The governing body, called the General Students' Council, only met annually, and was mostly focused on coordinating activities between centers, undertaking national policy initiatives and building alliances with other organizations. This satellite structure ensured that even if some sites were banned, the entire organization would not crumble and their work could go on. It also allowed the broader organization to leverage a limited amount of resources to have a significant effect in cities around the country.

SASO and the Black Resistance

Despite disagreements with other groups, Biko and SASO recognized the need for all anti-apartheid efforts to work together. Because they were so marginalized already, the anti-apartheid movement could not afford to be fragmented. Biko worked to use SASO to coordinate activity between different groups, such as The African National Congress (led at one point by Nelson Mandela), the Pan-African Congress, the Indian Congress, and the Colored Labour Party. He hoped that by working together, groups could fill vacuums that were created whenever any organization was banned. Furthermore, he hoped that their collective political strength could influence major political parties and create an anti-apartheid presence in elected government. Ultimately, his strategy was somewhat successful when their tentative alliance pressured the Labour Party into strengthening its anti-apartheid stance.