The basic tenet of black consciousness is that the black man must reject all value systems that seek to make him a foreigner in the country of his birth and reduce his basic human dignity.

It becomes more necessary to see the truth as it is if you realize that the only vehicle for change are these people who have lost their personality.

Black Consciousness therefore takes cognizance of the deliberateness of God's plan in creating Black people black.

It becomes more necessary to see the truth as it is if you realise that the only vehicle for change are these people who have lost their personality. The first step therefore is to make the black man come to himself; to pump back life into his empty shell; to infuse him with pride and dignity, to remind him of his complicity in the crime of allowing himself to be misused and therefore letting evil reign supreme in the country of his birth.

In time, we shall be in a position to bestow on South Africa the greatest possible gift - a more human face.

Black Consciousness is an attitude of the mind and a way of life, the most positive call to emanate from the black world for a long time. Its essence is the realisation by the black man of the need to rally together with his brothers around the cause of their oppression - the blackness of their skin - and to operate as a group to rid themselves of the shackles that bind them to perpetual servitude.

Being black is not a matter of pigmentation - being black is a reflection of a mental attitude.