South African Student Organisation

A radical student organization originally associated with the Black Consciousness Movement in the 1970s-1980s.

The organisation
The South African Student Organisation (SASO) was formed in 1968 after some members of the University of Natal’s Black Campus SRC (Student Representative Council) decided to break away from the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS). NUSAS was a liberal organisation dominated by White students. When it was formed in 1924, it was an exclusively White student body that represented student interests. In the 1960s White members became sympathetic to the Black students cause. As a result, Black students membership began to increase. Many of these students, the majority of whom were based at the University of Natal, became increasingly dissatisfied with the inability of NUSAS to tackle deep racist structures and policies of both the government and universities.

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