Quiz: Resisting Apartheid: Biko and Woods — 18 perguntas

1. What was the main goal of Steve Biko’s Black Consciousness movement?

A. To persuade Black South Africans to accept segregation peacefully

B. To replace all journalism with underground armed struggle

C. To rebuild Black dignity and self-confidence against psychological domination

D. To encourage white leaders to manage reform from above

Answer: (C)

Explicação

Black Consciousness urged Black South Africans to recover pride and reject the internalized acceptance of domination. It focused on dignity and self-worth rather than passive acceptance.

2. Why does Biko take Woods to visit Black townships?

A. To introduce him to wealthy white supporters of reform

B. To demonstrate that townships are comfortable and protected

C. To hide him from police surveillance temporarily

D. To show him the everyday consequences of apartheid firsthand

Answer: (D)

Explicação

The township visit makes apartheid’s effects visible through poverty, poor housing, and degraded schools. It is meant to confront Woods with lived reality.

3. How does the film show state repression intensifying around opposition?

A. Through open elections and free debate

B. Through reduced monitoring of newspapers

C. Through the government’s decision to withdraw all police presence

D. Through surveillance, arbitrary arrests, and clashes with police

Answer: (D)

Explicação

The regime uses police surveillance, arrests, and force to crush dissent and control opposition. Censorship and monitoring of journalists also reinforce repression.

4. Why is Biko’s arrest presented as a turning point?

A. It results in his immediate release and public victory

B. It leads to violent detention and the beginning of the cover-up

C. It shows the government has accepted Black Consciousness

D. It ends police surveillance of activists

Answer: (B)

Explicação

Biko’s arrest is the tragic point at which detention, torture, and official deception converge. The film treats it as the moment that exposes the regime’s brutality.

5. What official explanation does the government give for Biko’s death?

A. That he left the country in secret

B. That he died from old age in prison

C. That he was killed in a public riot

D. That he died after a hunger strike

Answer: (D)

Explicação

The state claims Biko died after a hunger strike, but the film presents this explanation as suspicious and part of a cover-up. It is meant to hide the effects of torture.

6. How is Steve Biko portrayed in relation to resistance?

A. As a passive observer who avoids public speech

B. As a calm, intelligent leader who challenges apartheid through dignity

C. As a violent extremist who rejects all political discussion

D. As a government official defending segregation

Answer: (B)

Explicação

Biko is presented as charismatic, thoughtful, and committed to Black self-worth as a form of resistance. The film does not frame him as a violent extremist.

7. What happens once Woods is abroad?

A. He stops reporting and disappears from public life

B. He argues that the regime’s version was correct

C. He joins the apartheid government in exile

D. He publishes his revelations and makes Biko’s story known internationally

Answer: (D)

Explicação

From abroad, Woods is able to publish what he learned about Biko’s death and apartheid violence. This gives the story international exposure.

8. What is the purpose of a banning order under apartheid?

A. To allow public rallies under supervision

B. To give activists special protection from police

C. To guarantee press freedom for critical journalists

D. To restrict a person’s speech, movement, and contacts

Answer: (D)

Explicação

Banning orders are severe restrictions that silence targeted people by limiting speaking, traveling, and meeting others. They are a tool of repression, not protection.

9. What is the film’s overall anti-apartheid message?

A. It suggests segregation can be reformed without confronting power

B. It focuses mainly on romance and avoids politics

C. It treats apartheid as a minor background issue

D. It condemns apartheid openly and presents journalism as a tool of resistance

Answer: (D)

Explicação

The film explicitly denounces apartheid and links truth-seeking journalism to resistance. It does not present the system as a small or neutral issue.

10. Why does Woods eventually flee South Africa?

A. He is sent abroad by the government for promotion

B. He is invited to lead the police investigation

C. He decides to stop writing completely

D. He believes remaining would put his family in greater danger

Answer: (D)

Explicação

After escalating threats and surveillance, Woods leaves clandestinely because staying would endanger his family. Exile allows him to keep speaking more safely.

11. What role do photographs of Biko’s body play in Woods’s investigation?

A. They confirm the hunger-strike explanation

B. They prove Biko died peacefully in his sleep

C. They show that no police contact occurred

D. They reveal injuries that support the claim of torture

Answer: (D)

Explicação

The photographs provide material evidence of injuries and contradict the government’s story. They help Woods conclude that the state is hiding the truth.

12. What first pushes Donald Woods toward changing his view of Steve Biko?

A. Witnessing Biko lead an armed revolt

B. Reading only official government statements about apartheid

C. Being appointed by the government to investigate the police

D. Meeting Biko directly after hearing about him through propaganda

Answer: (D)

Explicação

Woods initially knows Biko mainly through newspapers and government propaganda, then meets him in person. That first meeting begins his transformation.

13. Why does the poisoned shirt episode matter in the film?

A. It marks the end of all threats against journalists

B. It proves Woods has joined the police

C. It shows that the family is safe under surveillance

D. It shows the regime is willing to endanger Woods’s family to silence him

Answer: (D)

Explicação

The poisoned shirt is a chilling attempt to intimidate Woods through his wife and children. It demonstrates how far the regime will go to suppress opposition.

14. Which feature best reflects institutional racism under apartheid?

A. Equal access to housing, schools, and police protection

B. Prejudice based only on individual attitudes and private beliefs

C. Discrimination maintained through laws and official practices

D. Separation of communities without any effect on rights

Answer: (C)

Explicação

Institutional racism refers to discrimination built into laws and practices so inequality is reproduced by the system itself. It is broader than private prejudice and directly affects access to rights and resources.

15. How is Donald Woods’s early position best described?

A. Completely supportive of the white regime

B. Moderate and not yet fully aware of Black South Africans’ daily reality

C. Uninterested in journalism and public issues

D. Already a radical opponent of apartheid from the start

Answer: (B)

Explicação

At first, Woods is portrayed as a liberal but relatively moderate figure who does not fully understand Black daily life. His political shift comes later through direct experience.

16. What best describes apartheid in South Africa?

A. A temporary emergency rule used only during wartime

B. A policy that ended racial conflict by integrating all institutions equally

C. A democratic system that guaranteed equal representation for all communities

D. A legal and social system that separated racial groups and enforced unequal rights

Answer: (D)

Explicação

Apartheid was a system of racial segregation that legally and socially separated groups while preserving unequal rights. The other options describe systems that are the opposite of apartheid or unrelated to it.

17. What most changes Woods after Biko’s death?

A. Being promoted by the government to a larger newspaper

B. Discovering evidence that the state is lying about the cause of death

C. Deciding to stop reporting on political events

D. Learning that Biko was a government informant

Answer: (B)

Explicação

Woods refuses the official account and investigates, eventually finding proof of torture. That evidence pushes him from journalism into political opposition.

18. What does Woods realize after seeing the townships?

A. Townships are politically equal to white neighborhoods

B. Police are present mainly to protect Black communities

C. Apartheid has mostly ended in everyday life

D. White South Africans live in a protected world separated from Black suffering

Answer: (D)

Explicação

The film shows that white people live in a sheltered reality while Black South Africans face poverty and police fear. This helps transform Woods’s understanding of apartheid.