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Zanempilo Community Health Care Centre (ZCHC), infamously known as the "Biko Clinic", was the first primary health care centre initiative outside of the public sector in South Africa. [1] It is located in Zinyoka Village, near King William's Town in the Eastern Cape. The clinic was established as one of the Black Community Programmes (BCPs) spearheaded by Steve Biko and Mamphela Ramphele.
"Zanempilo" meaning "bringing health" in isiXhosa, operated from 1974 to 1977 and aimed to improve the physical health of the community, assist with economic growth and restore a sense of dignity for black people. It took an holistic approach to treating health problems in the community by considering the environment and living conditions of the patients. The Black Consciousness Movement became active from the 1960s to the 1970s after the ANC and PAC were banned by the South African government. The South African Students Movement, SASO had limitations as a student movement therefore, the Black Consciousness Movement created a numerous political and community organisations like the Zanempilo Community Health Care Centre in order to expand the movement. [2] At the time, residents in the Ciskei region experienced the negative effects of the migrant labour system, state neglect, decreasing agricultural sustainability (as many young skilled men had left to work in the mines), inadequate health services and an influx of people due to forced removals. [3]
The village of Zinyoka in the Ciskei experienced all of these challenges with rural health clinics scattered approximately 20 kilometres apart. These clinics lacked medical supplies and staff members. Grey Hospital in King William's Town was mostly used for white patients. The hospitals that allowed black people were the Mission Hospital, Mt Coke Mission Hospital and St Matthews Mission which were far away and poorly resourced. The Zanempilo Community Health Care Centre mainly served people from the surrounding rural areas. These were mostly women who were either domestic workers or relied on their husbands' wages from mining. Research and statistics done be ZCHCC staff found that the "average" Zinyoka family consisted of an average of 6 people. Each family earned an income of R5-R10 per week and the families consisted mostly of women and children. Most of the men were over the age of 50 (as younger men were at work). [4]
The startup funding came from Angela Mai, a German citizen born in South Africa, who approached the BCP with between R20 000 - R30 000. [5] The South African Council of Churches (SACC) assisted in running costs. The clinic opened in January 1975. [6]
The health care centre was built on the land of an Anglican church. The ZCHCC provided:
These services were available 24 hours a daty, 7 days a week and throughout the year. The facility expanded and was fully equipped with beds, flushing toilets, electricity and clean water, amenities that many of the residents of Zinyoka were unaccustomed to. [9] Zanempilo not only functioned as a health facility, but also as a political meeting point, training ground for activists, community centre to discuss problems and place of events and celebrations. [10] The facility had many visitors ranging from neighbouring villagers, political activists, businessmen, philanthropists, international visitors and the security police.
Nontombeko Moletsane initiated a bulk grocery buying scheme. Child mortality decreased after the nutrition of the community improved. She also started a leather factory which provided many of the women with income.
The headman and chief in Zinyoka, Sidoko Sijama, under the chief of Tshatshu, was against the operations of the clinic. Many of the members of the Ciskei government were afraid that this clinic would cause conflict with the authorities. A rival clinic was built but it did not succeed. Other attempts to end the operations of the clinic included withholding the operating licence and not allowing the clinic access to free immunisations for children.
Two weeks after the death of Steve Biko, on the 17 October 1977, all black consciousness organisations including the BCPs were banned. Two days after this ban, authorities confiscated all the assets of the clinic. They also destroyed the leather work factory and placed the Zanempilo clinic under government control. Additionally, all clinic programmes were cancelled, it no longer offered 24 hour care, it was not open on weekends, it lost supplies and no longer provided ambulatory services. [11]
The success of the ZCHCC led to the initiation of a similar project at the South coast of Natal called Sonempilo meaning "Eye of Health" however, the banning of black consciousness organisations led to the closure of this facility in 1977. During Mamphela Ramphele's time in Tzaneen, she created the Isutheng Community Health Programme which empowered women through growing vegetable gardens and other economically empowering activities. [12] The Biko Heritage Trail which runs from Port Elizabeth to King William's Town, it includes Niko's home in Ginsenberg township, Biko Bridge in East London and the Zanempilo Clinic. [13] [14] Currently, the "Biko Clinic" is functioning and in need of repairs. It serves 800 people per month in a community of 3500. [15]
Bantu Stephen Biko OMSG was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he was at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign known as the Black Consciousness Movement during the late 1960s and 1970s. His ideas were articulated in a series of articles published under the pseudonym Frank Talk.
Donald James Woods was a South African journalist and anti-apartheid activist. As editor of the Daily Dispatch, he was known for befriending fellow activist Steve Biko, who was killed by police after being detained by the South African government. Woods continued his campaign against apartheid in London, and in 1978 became the first private citizen to address the United Nations Security Council.
Cry Freedom is a 1987 epic apartheid drama film directed and produced by Richard Attenborough, set in late-1970s apartheid-era South Africa. The screenplay was written by John Briley based on a pair of books by journalist Donald Woods. The film centres on the real-life events involving South African activist Steve Biko and his friend Donald Woods, who initially finds him too radical, and attempts to understand his way of life. Denzel Washington stars as Biko, while Kevin Kline portrays Woods. Cry Freedom delves into the ideas of discrimination, political corruption, and the repercussions of violence.
The Black People's Convention (BPC) was a national coordinating body for the Black Consciousness movement of South Africa. Envisaged as a broad-based counterpart to the South African Students' Organisation, the BPC was active in organising resistance to apartheid from its establishment in 1972 until it was banned in late 1977.
The Azanian People's Organisation (AZAPO) is a South African liberation movement and political party. The organisation's two student wings are the Azanian Students' Movement (AZASM) for high school learners and the other being for university level students called the Azanian Students' Convention (AZASCO), its women's wing is Imbeleko Women's Organisation, simply known as IMBELEKO. Its inspiration is drawn from the Black Consciousness Movement inspired philosophy of Black Consciousness developed by Steve Biko, Harry Nengwekhulu, Abram Onkgopotse Tiro, Vuyelwa Mashalaba and others, as well as Marxist Scientific Socialism.
Mamphela Aletta Ramphele is a South African politician, anti-apartheid activist, medical doctor and businesswoman. She was a partner of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, with whom she had two children. She is a former vice-chancellor at the University of Cape Town and a former managing director at the World Bank. Ramphele founded political party Agang South Africa in February 2013 but withdrew from politics in July 2014. Since 2018, she has been the co-president of the Club of Rome
Zwelitsha is a town in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It forms part of the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality.
The Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) was a grassroots anti-Apartheid activist movement that emerged in South Africa in the mid-1960s out of the political vacuum created by the jailing and banning of the African National Congress and Pan Africanist Congress leadership after the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960. The BCM represented a social movement for political consciousness.
[Black Consciousness'] origins were deeply rooted in Christianity. In 1966, the Anglican Church under the incumbent, Archbishop Robert Selby Taylor, convened a meeting which later on led to the foundation of the University Christian Movement (UCM). This was to become the vehicle for Black Consciousness.
The South African Students' Organisation (SASO) was a body of black South African university students who resisted apartheid through non-violent political action. The organisation was formed in 1969 under the leadership of Steve Biko and Barney Pityana and made vital contributions to the ideology and political leadership of the Black Consciousness Movement. It was banned by the South African government in October 1977, as part of the repressive state response to the Soweto uprising.
Bennie Khoapa was a social worker in South Africa during the 1960s and 1970s involved in the resistance to apartheid. He worked for YMCA, and was supportive of the young activists of the time, especially the young Steve Biko. Ultimately Biko and Khoapa founded the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM). In the movement, Khoapa was able to use his experience and connections to garner the support of various Christian organizations, and lend the BCM crucial credibility in its formative months. Khoapa was among those banned by the South African government due to their actions in the anti-apartheid movement.
The National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) was an important force for liberalism and later radicalism in South African student anti-apartheid politics. Its mottos included non-racialism and non-sexism.
Bruce Douglas Haigh was an Australian political commentator and diplomat. He joined the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs in 1972 and served in South Africa.
Hlumelo Biko is a South African businessman and investment banker. He is the son of Steve Biko and Mamphela Ramphele.
Established in 1998, The Steve Biko Foundation (SBF) is a community development organisation in South Africa. The organisation is inspired by the late anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko (1946–1977).
Senwabarwana, also known as Bochum, is a town in the Blouberg Local Municipality of the Capricorn District Municipality in the Limpopo province of South Africa. The town is the seat of the Blouberg Local Municipality. It is located about 93 km northwest of the city Polokwane.
Cecilia Makiwane Hospital (CMH) is a large, provincial, government-funded hospital situated in the Mdantsane township near East London, Eastern Cape in South Africa. It is a tertiary teaching hospital and forms part of the East London Hospital Complex with Frere Hospital. It is named after Cecilia Makiwane, the first African woman to become a professional nurse in South Africa.
Dr. Maitshwe Nchuape Aubrey Mokoape was a South African anti-apartheid activist and a leader of the Pan-Africanist Congress and Black Consciousness Movement. He was first arrested and detained at the age of 15. He studied and worked alongside political anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko. In post-apartheid South Africa, Mokoape became a physician.
Aelred Stubbs was an Anglican priest and monk, influential in the campaign against apartheid in South Africa during the 1970s.
Winnie Motlalepula Kgware was a South African anti-Apartheid activist within the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM). She was elected as the first president of the Black People's Convention (BPC), a BCM-affiliated community-based organisation in 1972.
