Steve Bantu Biko, who died on this very same day (12 September) 30 years ago, was a noted anti-apartheid activist in Mzansi in the 1960s and early 1970s. A student leader, he later founded the Black Consciousness Movement which would empower and mobilize much of the urban black population. Since his death in police custody, he has been called a martyr of the anti-apartheid movement. While living, his writings and activism attempted to empower blacks (and succeeded by many accounts), and he was famous for his slogan "black is beautiful", which he described as meaning: "man, you are okay as you are, begin to look upon yourself as a human being". We asked Zenzile Khoisan, a renowned journalist and cultural thinker, to put together a poem in commemoration of Steve Bantu Biko:
FOR BIKO, AN EVERGREEN SIGNPOST ON A BEAUTIFUL JOURNEY
Three decades have now passed, the blood has dried
on cell 619, but the searing image of your defiance
dignified rejection of mediocrity, eloquent counterpoint
to book burners, intellectual savages, residents of the abyss
Bantu Steven Biko, brilliant lighthouse illuminating the path
in confusing, turbulent times, your simple credo, of self respect
still stirs the embers of our resistant, idealistic souls
we refuse to dismount for charlatans, carpetbaggers
Biko, father of the South African conscience
field marshall of what's left of the pieces of a precious dream
fortress of our resolve, our spirit of no surrender
Your were, and evermore remain, the real thing.
Zenzile Khoisan
[Zenzile Khoisan is a published author and poet. He currently serves as the Editor of arts and culture magazine, Rootz Africa]
Famous Quotes from Steve Biko
"The logic behind white domination is to prepare the black man for the subservient role in this country. Not so long ago this used to be freely said in parliament, even about the educational system of the black people. It is still said even today, although in a much more sophisticated language. To a large extent the evil-doers have succeeded in producing at the output end of their machine a kind of black man who is man only in form. This is the extent to which the process of dehumanisation has advanced." — "We Blacks"
"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed." — "White Racism and Black Consciousness", in I Write What I Like
"It is better to die for an idea that will live, than to live for an idea that will die."
"The system concedes nothing without demand, for it formulates its very method of operation on the basis that the ignorant will learn to know, the child will grow into an adult and therefore demands will begin to be made. It gears itself to resist demands in whatever way it sees fit." — "The Quest for a True Humanity",
"In time, we shall be in a position to bestow on South Africa the greatest possible gift—a more human face."White Racism and Black Consciousness", in I Write What I Like
Steve Biko's internationally renowned book "I Write What I Like" can be found in all good bookstores around the country.
