South African Students' Movement Explained

The South African Students' Movement (SASM) was an anti-apartheid political organisation of South African school students, best known for its role in the 1976 Soweto uprising.^{[1] [2] [3]} By 1976 it was strongly identified with the Black Consciousness Movement. It was banned by the apartheid government in October 1977 as part of the repressive state response to the uprising.^[4]

SASM was founded in 1972 in the Transvaal and was most active in Soweto high schools. According to academic Nozipho Diseko, its precursor was the African Students Movement (ASM), a forum founded in Soweto in 1968. On Diseko's account, ASM's leaders, in consultation with leaders of the Black Consciousness South African Students' Organisation (SASO), decided in 1972 to rename and expand ASM and subsequently launched several broad campaigns against the Bantu Education system.^[5]

Notes and References

1. Book: Heffernan, Anne . Students Must Rise: Youth Struggle in South Africa Before and Beyond Soweto '76. . 2016 . Wits University Press . Noor Nieftagodien . 978-1-86814-978-0 . Johannesburg . 974583465.
2. Book: Gerhart, Gail M. . The 1976 Soweto Uprising . 1994 . University of the Witwatersrand, Institute for Advanced Social Research . en.
3. Book: Hirson, Baruch . Year of Fire, Year of Ash: The Soweto Revolt: Roots of a Revolution? . 2016 . Zed Press . 978-1-928246-07-7 . en.
4. Web site: 31 March 2011 . South African Students Movement (SASM) . 2023-01-07 . South African History Online.
5. Diseko . Nozipho J. . 1992 . The Origins and Development of the South African Student's Movement (SASM): 1968–1976 . Journal of Southern African Studies . 18 . 1 . 40–62 . 10.1080/03057079208708305 . 2637181 . 0305-7070.