The aim of this book is to highlight the role that the Black Consciousness Movement played in the transformation of South Africa from racial oppression to participatory democracy. The book also sheds some light on the plight of those political detainees who suffered under dictatorial regimes around the world. Chief amongst these are those who were tortured in prisons for their political beliefs and particularly in South Africa. Cultural and political patterns of thinking as well as intransigence resulting from fixed mental attitudes about one's culture, religion, ideology, sentiment and collective memory play a predominant role in the conflicts that have become anathema in our modern world.