...valiantly to build up and maintain a multiracial membership, the dice were loaded against its efforts in this regard because of the national environment. There happened to be more white students than black students in the land, and this fact, and the general set of legislative obstacles which militate against socio-political integration in South Africa, meant that its leadership was white-oriented--the very fact which provided the black students with their launching pad for the all-black South African Students' Organization.
The formation of SASO, a traumatic event for white liberal
youth committed to the NUSAS ideals (and traumatic also for at
least one liberal newspaper editor, proud to be a NUSAS honorary
vice-president!), was inspired by Steve Biko. But the
gestation process was initially best publicly described by two
spokesmen on opposite sides of the dispute. One, a NUSAS leader
named Clive Nettleton, gave a strikingly perceptive
analysis which is excerpted here:
The formation of SASO has disrupted the traditional alignment of the South African student world. The old alignment consisted of, on the one side, the Afrikaanse Studentebond, representing the Afrikaans-language universities supporting apartheid, and on the other hand NUSAS, representing the English-speaking campuses, including the black university colleges. The formation of SASO has introduced a new force into the situation and has underlined the inability of NUSAS to represent adequately the views of black students. SASO also has importance because it reflects a new movement in society at large--Black Consciousness.
The major problem facing NUSAS as a nonracial organization existing in a society based on racism is that, while preaching the ideal of nonracism, the members of the organization are unable to live out their ideals. While it is still possible for white and black students to hold joint
(copyright 1978 by Donald Woods)