The decolonisation of the mind - Black consciousness community projects by the Limpopo Council of Churches

Abstract

This article is a narrative account of examples of community projects of the Black Consciousness Movement as part of an attempt to decolonise the black mind as undertaken by the South African Council of Churches (SACC) in the former Northern Transvaal of South Africa (now the Limpopo province). During the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, this area was regarded as the most conservative Afrikaner settlement as reported in The New York Times of 25 April 1991. The article recounts the role played by the South African Council of Churches in solidarity with the victims of apartheid on route to the decolonisation of the black mind. It briefly starts by describing the concept of the colonisation of the mind and then locates the philosophy of Black Consciousness as an appropriate response to the process of decolonising the black mind and thus the mission of the church. The article relies on archival material from the Limpopo Council of Churches as its primary source.