Greetings
On this day in 1977 Steve Bantu Biko died in police detention in Pretoria, South Africa. The police said it was the result of an extended hunger strike but truth is he had suffered a massive head injury as a result of police brutality. He had been arrested under the Terrorism Act of '67 because he was instrumental in the ANC anti-apartheid struggle. Biko was a revolutionary fighter who died in battle against racism. His views on Black Consciousness are as relevant today as they were when Biko wrote I Write What I Like.
Long live the memory of Bantu Biko, may we never forget his life paid the price of freedom.
Here are a few quotes from his book and some speeches:
"Being black is not a matter of pigmentation - being black is a reflection of a mental attitude."
The Definition of Black Consciousness, I Write What I Like, 1978.
"Black Consciousness is an attitude of the mind and a way of life, the most positive call to emanate from the black world for a long time. Its essence is the realisation by the black man of the need to rally together with his brothers around the cause of their oppression - the blackness of their skin - and to operate as a group to rid themselves of the shackles that bind them to perpetual servitude."
The Quest for a True Humanity, I Write What I Like, 1978.
"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed."
Speech in Cape Town, 1971
"We do not want to be reminded that it is we, the indigenous people, who are poor and exploited in the land of our birth. These are concepts which the Black Consciousness approach wishes to eradicate from the black man's mind before our society is driven to chaos by irresponsible people from Coca-cola and hamburger cultural backgrounds."
The Quest for a True Humanity, I Write What I Like, 1978.
"So as a prelude whites must be made to realise that they are only human, not superior. Same with Blacks. They must be made to realise that they are also human, not inferior."
As quoted in the Boston Globe, 25 October 1977.
"You are either alive and proud or you are dead, and when you are dead, you can't care anyway."
On Death, I Write What I Like, 1978
"The basic tenet of black consciousness is that the black man must reject all value systems that seek to make him a foreigner in the country of his birth and reduce his basic human dignity."
From Steve Biko's evidence given at the SASO/BPC trial, 3 May 1976.
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