Courtesy of goggle Wikipedia
HEADLINE BY: OBEDIENCE MKHABELA
BE SELF-CONSCIOUS PEOPLE WILL FEAR WITH RESPECT
“The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed”
HEADLINE BY: OBEDIENCE MKHABELA
BE SELF-CONSCIOUS PEOPLE WILL FEAR WITH RESPECT
“The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed”
Bantu Stephen Biko (18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977) was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he was at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign known as the Black Consciousness Movement during the late 1960s and 1970s. His ideas were articulated in a series of articles published under the pseudonym Frank Talk.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWjkPklzglGo0xMXVntvePVYHKwx2wZHWrx9x0MDPpO5gGj3-a3qlWVdwghpbEoapajQAcNxdbJefz901gsJiYLsgFAYOUO145HCmCE8e3UcSesoNNCkdUKAU2X-WuYa53VsYYBl9EJg/s1600/Steve_Biko_Photograph.jpg)
Influenced
by Frantz Fanon and the
African-American Black Power movement, Biko and his compatriots
developed Black Consciousness as SASO's official ideology. The movement
campaigned for an end to apartheid and the transition of South Africa
toward universal suffrage and a socialist
economy. It organised Black Community Programmes (BCPs) and focused on the
psychological empowerment of black people. Biko believed that black people
needed to rid themselves of any sense of racial inferiority, an idea he
expressed by popularizing the slogan "black is beautiful". In 1972, he was involved
in founding the Black People's Convention (BPC) to
promote Black Consciousness ideas among the wider population. The government
came to see Biko as a subversive threat and placed him under a banning order in
1973, severely restricting his activities. He remained politically active,
helping organise BCPs such as a healthcare centre and a crèche in the Ginsberg
area. During his ban he received repeated anonymous threats, and was detained
by state security services on several occasions. Following his arrest in August
1977, Biko was severely beaten by state security officers, resulting in his
death. Over 20,000 people attended his funeral.
Biko's
fame spread posthumously. He became the subject of numerous songs and works of
art, while a 1978 biography by his friend Donald Woods formed
the basis for the 1987 film Cry Freedom.
During Biko's life, the government alleged that he hated whites, various
anti-apartheid activists accused him of sexism,
and African racial nationalists criticised his united front with Coloureds and
Indians. Nonetheless, Biko became one of the earliest icons of the movement
against apartheid, and is regarded as a political martyr and
the "Father of Black Consciousness". His political legacy remains a
matter of contention.
Commemoration
Biko was commemorated in several
artworks after his death Gerard Sekoto, a South African artist
based in France, produced Homage to Steve Biko in 1978,[254] and another South African
artist, included a work entitled The Interrogators in his 1979
exhibition. A triptych, it depicted the three police officers implicated in
Biko's death. Kenya released a commemorative postage stamp featuring
Biko's face.
Biko's death also inspired several
songs, including from artists outside South Africa such as Tom Paxton and Peter Hammill.
The English singer-songwriter Peter Gabriel released
"Biko"
in tribute to him, which was a hit single in 1980, and was banned in South
Africa soon after. Along with other anti-apartheid music, the
song helped to integrate anti-apartheid themes into Western popular culture. Biko's
life was also commemorated through theatre. The inquest into his death was
dramatised for a play, The Biko Inquest, first performed in London
in 1978; a 1984 performance was directed by Albert Finney and
broadcast on television. Anti-apartheid activists used Biko's name and memory
in their protests; in 1979, a mountaineer climbed the spire of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco to
unfurl a banner with the names of Biko and imprisoned Black Panther Party leader Geronimo Pratton
it.
Following apartheid's collapse, Woods
raised funds to commission a bronze statue of Biko from Naomi Jacobson.
It was erected outside the front door of city hall in East London on the Eastern cape,
opposite a statue commemorating British soldiers killed in the Second Boer War.
Over 10,000 people attended the monument's unveiling in September 1997. In the
following months it was vandalised several times; in one instance it was daubed
with the letters "AWB", an acronym of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, a far-right
Afrikaner paramilitary group. In 1997, the
cemetery where Biko was buried was renamed the Steve Biko Garden of
Remembrance. The District Six Museum also held an
exhibition of artwork marking the 20th anniversary of his death by examining
his legacy
https://urbanintellectuals.com/2016/02/04/potent-weapon-hands-oppressor-mind-oppressed-bantu-stepeh-biko/
Also in September 1997, Biko's family established the Steve Biko Foundation. The Ford Foundation donated money to the group to establish a Steve Biko Centre in Ginsberg, opened in 2012. The Foundation launched its annual Steve Biko Memorial Lecture in 2000, each given by a prominent black intellectual. The first speaker was Njabulo Ndebele; later speakers included Zakes Mda, Chinua Achebe, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, and Mandela.[268]
Also in September 1997, Biko's family established the Steve Biko Foundation. The Ford Foundation donated money to the group to establish a Steve Biko Centre in Ginsberg, opened in 2012. The Foundation launched its annual Steve Biko Memorial Lecture in 2000, each given by a prominent black intellectual. The first speaker was Njabulo Ndebele; later speakers included Zakes Mda, Chinua Achebe, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, and Mandela.[268]
Buildings, institutes and public
spaces around the world have been named after Biko, such as the Steve Bikoplein
in Amsterdam. In 2008, the Pretoria Academic
Hospital was renamed the Steve Biko Hospital.
The University
of the Witwatersrand has a Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics. In Salvador, Bahia, a Steve Biko Institute was
established to promote educational attainment among poor Afro-Brazilians. In 2012, the Google Cultural
Institute published an online archive containing documents and
photographs owned by the Steve Biko Foundation. On 18 December 2016, Google marked what would have been Biko's
70th birthday with a Google Doodle.
Amid the dismantling of apartheid in
the early 1990s, various political parties competed over Biko's legacy, with
several saying they were the party that Biko would support if he were still
alive. AZAPO in particular claimed exclusive ownership over Black
Consciousness. In 1994, the ANC issued a campaign poster suggesting that Biko
had been a member of their party, which was untrue. ]Following the end of apartheid when
the ANC formed the government, they were accused of appropriating his legacy.
In 2002, AZAPO issued a statement declaring that "Biko was not a neutral,
apolitical and mythical icon" and that the ANC was
"scandalously" using Biko's image to legitimise their "weak"
government Members of the ANC have also
criticised AZAPO's attitude to Biko; in 1997, Mandela said that "Biko
belongs to us all, not just AZAPO.On the anniversary of Biko's death in 2015,
delegations from both the ANC and the Economic Freedom
Fighters independently visited his grave. In March 2017, the South African
President Jacob Zuma laid
a wreath at Biko's grave to mark Human Rights Day.
Born: 18 December 1946, Ginsberg, Eastern Cape
Born: 18 December 1946, Ginsberg, Eastern Cape
Assassinated: 12 September
1977, Pretoria
Spouse: Ntsiki Mashalaba (m.
1970–1977)
Books: I Write What I
Like, The Testimony of
Steve Biko, No fears expressed, The Essential
Steve Biko
References
READ MORE AT:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Biko
www.telegraph.co.uk › Technology
https://studycircle.wikispaces.com/file/view/I+Write+What+I+Like,+Steve+Biko.pdf
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/steven_biko_177008
www.telegraph.co.uk › Technology
https://studycircle.wikispaces.com/file/view/I+Write+What+I+Like,+Steve+Biko.pdf
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/steven_biko_177008