He ended up graduating in at a boarding school in Natal named St. Stephen Bantu Biko was an anti-apartheid activist in South Africa in the s and s. 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. Scroll on to learn more about this iconic figure and his pivotal role in the Black Consciousness Movement The University of Natal professed liberalism and was home to some of the leading intellectuals of that tradition. The University of Natal had also become a magnet attracting a number of former black educators, some of the most academically capable members of black society, who had been removed from black colleges by the University Act of.
His death from injuries suffered while in police custody made him an international martyr for South African Black nationalism. After being expelled from high school for political activism, Biko enrolled in and graduated from St. He soon grew disenchanted with NUSAS, believing that, instead of simply allowing Blacks to participate in white South African society, the society itself needed to be restructured around the culture of the Black majority.
SASO was based on the philosophy of Black consciousness , which encouraged Blacks to recognize their inherent dignity and self-worth. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in Oliver Tambo was the acting president of the African National Congress, the South African anti-apartheid political party. Tambo served primarily in exile. Under Jobs' guidance, the company pioneered a series of revolutionary technologies, including the iPhone and iPad.
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Biko enjoyed socialising with friends and people from the area. Steve was close to Sonwabo Yengo, who lived in Zaula Street, where they would have gumbas parties.
The group loved singing, and Steve in particular loved the song by Donny Hathaway, To be Young, Gifted and Black, but they also sang struggle songs and choral classics.
Rise up, leaders, and let us move forward. When Yengo last saw Steve, he was bruised and limping, and told his friend he had been beaten by White men — it is unclear if they were policemen or ordinary people.
But I am fighting back. But they are going to kill me at the rate they are going. Steve began his efforts sometime in the mids — Malusi Mpumlwana and Mapetla Mohapi were especially active in these attempts, and it later emerged that Mohapi had recruited people into the ANC, among them Brigitte Mabandla.
An idea grew that it BPC should explore its potential as a catalyst for uniting the liberation movements. Both were sympathetic to the idea, and agreed to speak to their counterparts. Harry Nengwekhulu , who had left the country after he was banned in March , was tasked with securing a meeting with the leader of the ANC in exile.
The plan was for Steve to leave the country for the meeting, perhaps through an invitation from a Western government. But the logistics and security issues proved too difficult, and several planned meetings had to be cancelled. According to Mark Gevisser, in his biography of Thabo Mbeki, Steve was to meet with Mbeki as well, but the security situation was not conducive.
Barney Pityana was also set to meet with Tambo after he left South Africa in Pityana and Khoapa met in Lesotho , where they were told that they would meet with Tambo in Lesotho, flying via Bloemfontein. Fortunately for them, however, they suspected a trap had been laid, and stayed away. Indeed, the next day the newspapers, informed by security police, published a story saying the two had been detained, when in fact they never boarded the plane and abandoned the mission.
This episode revealed that Craig Williamson was indeed an Apartheid spy. In , Steve was made the honorary president of BPC. Mpumlwana recounts the role Steve was to play in forging a broad movement together with the exiled organisations:.
It is here that you begin to see the need of having some kind of central figure. Before that he had no formal authority, it was all about charisma and the influence he had as an individual. The state was desperate to prevent relations between the BCM and the exiled organisations, and Steve was questioned about supposed contacts when he was detained.
This partly explains why Biko was detained so often during the last two years of his life. In March Biko was arrested and once again released. Mpumlwana was also arrested in March, and held for four months. Mamphela Ramphele was also banished to Northern Transvaal now Limpopo. With so many comrades neutralised, the plan for unity talks faltered. It was a fateful move. Jones and Steve, in consultation with their colleagues, decided to meet Neville Alexander in Cape Town, a trip that would end with the pair being detained.
Steve wanted to meet with Neville Alexander and with his BC counterparts in the city. Jones meanwhile drove to see Alexander, who informed him that he could not meet with Biko. Alexander was reluctant for several reasons: both he and Steve were banned and it would be a crippling blow to the movement if they were caught and convicted. He later recalled:. But I would not budge. In order to put pressure on me he said Steve was sitting in the car in the backyard.
I did not want to be caught in the crossfire. They were identified after a heavily disguised Steve, realising the hopelessness of denial, decided to announce that he was indeed the man the police were looking for. Jones underwent severe torture over a prolonged period, and never saw Steve again. Steve was stripped and manacled for 20 days before he was transferred to the Sanlam Building in Port Elizabeth, where the Security Police were based.
He was told to remain standing, but he defied his captors and sat down. Infuriated, a Captain Siebert manhandled him, but Steve fought back. Steve was badly beaten, and between the night of 6 September and the morning of 7 September, he sustained a brain haemorrhage. Despite his injury, the police kept him shackled to a grille, still naked.
Dr Ivor Lang could find nothing wrong with Steve on 7 September. When specialist Dr Benjamin Tucker examined Steve, he suggested that the badly injured detainee be taken to hospital, but he backed down when police objected. Lang did not object when police said they were driving Steve to Pretoria, km away. This they did, on 11 September, in the back of a van, with Steve still naked, frothing at the mouth, and unable to speak.
In Pretoria, a district surgeon examined Steve and tended to him, but it was too late. The government was at pains to contradict the obvious interpretation of the event — that the police had killed Steve.
Jimmy Kruger Image source. The medic, Kruger continued, found nothing wrong with Biko. Kruger continued his account, glossing over the serious injuries Steve sustained while in detention.
It leaves me cold. I can say nothing to you. Any person who dies; I should also be sorry if I die. Kruger went on to justify the detention of Steve, saying that he had been found in possession of pamphlets inciting arson and violence. A vehement campaign is in progress which surpasses all previous protests.
The venomous suggestions are of such an extravagant nature that it fills an objective observer with trepidation: The purpose is to discredit the security police. Newspapers reported that Steve had sustained brain damage. Biko's Coffin. A nation weeps. Mourners gather to pay their last respects as Steve Biko's body lies in state in his home before the funeral, attended by 20, mourners at King William's Town, November Photo: Bailey's African History Archives.
Police blocked all the routes into the town, and thousands were turned away by the heavily armed officials. Convoys in the major cities were stopped even before they set out for the funeral.
The physician said he had treated 30 of the mourners, some for fractured skulls, and said he had witnesses who would testify that a number of young women were raped. Yet, the authorities could not hide or dampen the significance of the occasion, which was attended by diplomats from 13 Western countries — from the United States of America, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Holland, Canada, Australia, Brazil and the Scandinavian countries.
Of note, Woods, Sir Richard Attenborough director of "Cry Freedom" , and Peter Gabriel—all White men—have had perhaps the most influence and control in the widespread telling of Biko's story, and have also profited from it.
This is an important point to consider as we reflect on his legacy, which remains notably small when compared to more famous anti-apartheid leaders such as Mandela and Tutu.
But Biko remains a model and hero in the struggle for autonomy and self-determination for people around the world. His writings, work, and tragic murder were all historically crucial to the momentum and success of the South African anti-apartheid movement.
In , at the 20th anniversary of Biko's murder, then-South African President Mandela memorialized Biko, calling him "a proud representative of the re-awakening of a people" and adding:.
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Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Share Flipboard Email. Alistair Boddy-Evans is a teacher and African history scholar with more than 25 years of experience.
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