Storying ourselves: Black Consciousness thought and adolescent agency in 21st-century Africa

Abstract

Mindful of 2020’s global focus on questions of systemic racism, this article looks at the continuing salience of the South African activist Steve Biko’s ideas about Black Consciousness and consciousness-raising as they impact young people’s empowerment in African countries. In the context of the UK Research and Innovation Global Challenges Research Fund (UKRI GCRF) Accelerate Hub (2019–24), a project exploring interventions in adolescents’ lives across the continent, it considers the ongoing relevance of Biko’s thought in changing mindsets, challenging institutional racism, interrogating the dependency relations that underpinned 20th-century African aid programmes, and transforming the narratives young people in Africa tell about themselves. The article outlines how Hub workshops introduce young people to the Biko-inspired practice of storytelling as speaking from where you stand, resisting negative stereotyping. It offers recommendations concerning agency and intervention drawn from Biko’s key text, I Write What I Like (1978).