Ethnic Studies: Outside Media Representations

Included in the Schomburg collection were “War Stories,” by Michael Slate, a journalist from the US.  This folder consisted of Slate’s interviews, observations, and speeches gathered traveling through the oppressed townships in South Africa ([“War Stories, 1990], Folder #12, Black Consciousness Movement of South Africa, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library).  Michael Slate himself was a correspondent for Revolution (formerly Revolutionary Worker), and this magazine published most of Slate’s writings.  He traveled through the townships in order to raise awareness for the oppressed minority in South Africa. 

While many people within the BCM accused external press of coloring the activists in order to maintain capitalist interests, Slate starkly describes the true conditions of the blacks.  Many of the people Slate interviewed believed that “Apartheid is America’s offspring” ([“War Stories,” 1990], Black Consciousness Movement, Folder #12).  In addition to writing about the degraded living conditions, Slate also introduces new cultural changes that have emerged from the anti-apartheid movement.  For example, he describes a form of street dancing called toi-toi, and new words like ‘street committee’ that were created by the black masses.  Each township was also fiercely proud of its language, such as Xhosa ([“War Stories,” 1990], Black Consciousness Movement, Folder #12).