Mosibudi Mangena: striving for black consciousness

Abstract

Mosibudi Aaron Mangena spent his entire adult life as a leader in the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM), eventually becoming the movement's only member to be part of the government in the post-apartheid era. He was born on 7 August 1947 in Tzaneen in the current Limpopo Province, and is the son of Tlodipyane Makwela and Tebele Rephard Mangena, who were farm labourers on a white-owned farm. Mangena's parents sent him and his brothers away from the farm to shield them from the harshness of farm life. They were placed in the care of relatives in what was then known as the town of Pietersburg (Polokwane). The memories of his parents and others like them working on the farm he was born on had a major impact on him, and this direct experience of injustice has always influenced his political principles and beliefs. Mangena attended the Lethabo Primary School in Wallmansthal until 1964, followed by the Wallmansthal Secondary School from 1965, where he obtained a Junior Certificate with distinction in 1967.