The Law and the Prophets: Black Consciousness in South Africa, 1968-1977

Frontmatter

The Law and the Prophets n e w ฀ a f r i c a n ฀ h i s to r i e s ฀ s e r i e s Series editors: Jean Allman and Allen Isaacman David William Cohen and E. S. Atieno Odhiambo, The Risks of Knowledge: Investigations into the Death of the Hon. Minister John Robert Ouko in Kenya, 1990 Belinda Bozzoli, Theatres of Struggle and the End of Apartheid Gary Kynoch, We Are Fighting the World: A History of Marashea Gangs in South Africa, 1947–1999 Stephanie Newell, The Forger’s Tale: The Search for Odeziaku Jacob A. Tropp, Natures of Colonial Change: Environmental Relations in the Making of the Transkei Jan Bender Shetler, Imagining Serengeti: A History of Landscape Memory in Tanzania from Earliest Times to the Present Cheikh Anta Babou, Fighting the Greater Jihad: Amadu Bamba and the Founding of the Muridiyya of Senegal, 1853–1913 Marc Epprecht, Heterosexual Africa? The History of an Idea from the Age of Exploration to the Age of AIDS Marissa J. Moorman, Intonations: A Social History of Music and Nation in Luanda, Angola, from 1945 to Recent Times Karen E. Flint, Healing Traditions: African Medicine, Cultural Exchange, and Competition in South Africa, 1820–1948 Derek R. Peterson and Giacomo Macola, editors, Recasting the Past: History Writing and Political Work in Modern Africa Moses Ochonu, Colonial Meltdown: Northern Nigeria in the Great Depression Emily Burrill, Richard Roberts, and Elizabeth Thornberry, editors, Domestic Violence and the Law in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa Daniel R. Magaziner, The Law and the Prophets: Black Consciousness in South Africa, 1968–1977 The Law and the Prophets Black Consciousness in South Africa, 1968–1977 w Daniel R. Magaziner o hio university press w athens j acana w johannesburg Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701 www.ohioswallow.com© 2010 by Ohio University Press All rights reserved Published in 2010 in South Africa by Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd., 10 Orange Street, Auckland Park 2092, South Africa To obtain permission to quote, reprint, or otherwise reproduce or distribute material from Ohio University Press publications, please contact our rights and permissions department at (740) 593-1154 or (740) 593-4536 (fax). Printed in the United States of America Ohio University Press books are printed on acid-free paper ƒ ™ 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 5 4 3 2 1 Portions of chapters 4 and 5 appeared in Radical History Review, no. 99 (Fall 2007), and portions of chapters 2 and 3 appeared in the International Journal of African Historical Studies 42, no. 2 (2009). I gratefully acknowledge the editors of MARHO, Duke University Press, and the IJAHS for granting permission to reprint. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Magaziner, Daniel R. The law and the prophets : Black consciousness in South Africa, 1968–1977 / Daniel R. Magaziner. p. cm. — (New African histories series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8214-1917-5 (hc : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8214-1918-2 (pb : alk. paper) 1. Blacks—Race identity—South Africa—History. 2. Black Consciousness Movement of South Africa—History. 3. Black nationalism—South Africa—History. 4. Black nationalism—Religious aspects—Christianity. 5. Anti-apartheid movements—South Africa—History. 6. Anti-apartheid movements—Religious aspects—Christianity. 7. South Africa—Politics and government—1961–1978. 8. Black theology. I. Title. DT1758.M34 2010 305.896'06809047—dc22 2010019134 They were merely glad to have, at last, divine corroboration of their experience, to hear—and it was a tremendous thing to hear—that they had been lied to for all these years and generations, and that their captivity was ending, for God was black. —James Baldwin, “Down at the Cross” ...