Steve Biko

Stephen Biko (King William's Town, December 18, 1946-Pretoria, September 12, 1977) was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and socialist, he was at the forefront of a grassroots campaign against apartheid known as the Black Consciousness Movement during the 1960s and 1970s. His ideas were articulated in a series of published articles. under the pseudonym Frank Talk.

Raised in a poor Xhosa family, Biko grew up in the Ginsberg township in the Eastern Cape. In 1966, he began studying medicine at the University of Natal, where he joined the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS). Unlike the apartheid system of racial segregation and white minority rule in South Africa, Biko was frustrated that the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) and other anti-apartheid groups were dominated by white liberals, rather than by the blacks most affected by apartheid. He believed that well-intentioned white liberals misunderstood the black experience and often acted paternalistically. He developed the view that to avoid white domination, black people had to organize independently, and to this end he became a leading figure in the creation of the South African Students' Organization (SASO) in 1968. Membership was open only to the "blacks", a term that Biko used in reference not only to Bantu-speaking Africans, but also to mestizos and Indians. He was careful to keep his movement independent of white liberals, but he opposed the anti-white movement and had white friends. The white minority National Party government was initially supportive, seeing the creation of SASO as a victory for the apartheid ethos of racial separatism.

Biography

Bantu Stephen Biko was born on December 18, 1946, at his grandmother's house in Tarkastad, Eastern Cape. He is the third child of Mzingaye Mathew Biko and Alice & # 39; Mamcete & # 39; Biko, he had an older sister, Bukelwa, an older brother, Khaya, and a younger sister, Nobandile.

He was educated at Lovedale College, and obtained his high school degree at Mariannhill, a Catholic institution in Natal. In 1966 he entered the University of Natal to study medicine.

He participated in the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) but considered that it was controlled by white students. Then in 1968 he founded the South African Students' Association (SASO), of which he was appointed president. SASO was one of the first "Black Consciousness" that emerged. It defined "black" differently than Nelson Mandela's African National Congress had done (until around 1965) in that it included not only black Africans, but also all citizens the apartheid state designated as "non-white" (mixed races, mulattoes and Indians).

Biko developed SASO's ideology of "Black Consciousness" in conversation with other black student leaders. A SASO policy manifesto produced in July 1971 defined this ideology as "an attitude of mind, a way of life. The basic principle of Black Consciousness is that the Black must reject all value systems that seek to make him a foreigner in the country of his birth and reduce his basic human dignity. Black Consciousness focused on psychological empowerment, through combating the feelings of inferiority that most black South Africans exhibited. Biko believed that, as part of the fight against apartheid and white minority rule, black people should affirm their own humanity by considering themselves worthy of freedom and their responsibilities. He applied the term & # 34; black & # 34; not only to Bantu-speaking Africans, but also to Indians and Colorados. SASO adopted this term about "non-white" because his leadership felt that defining himself in opposition to whites was not a positive description. Biko promoted the slogan 'Black is beautiful', explaining that this meant 'Man, you're fine the way you are.' Start looking at yourself as a human being.'

For these activities, Biko was expelled from the university. In 1972 he founded the Black Community Programme, in Durban, "for the political and socio-economic development of the brothers of the black community of South Africa and thereby stimulate positive actions for self-emancipation from the inhuman subjugation of apartheid."

Among the projects of this program was the publication of the Black Magazine, an effort to analyze the trends of political currents, and of which Biko was the editor. In February 1973 Black Magazine was closed and Biko was placed under house arrest. He was prohibited from participating in any activities of any organization, and he was banished for five years to his hometown, King William's Town.

These acts of state violence only increased Biko's emancipatory struggle. He continued working at the Black Community branch of King William's Town, and began studying law by correspondence. In December 1975, his bans increased and he was even prevented from working in the communal program.

In 1975 he founded the Zimele Trust Fund (to help political prisoners and their families) and the Ginsberg Educational Trust (to help student victims of racist persecution).

In 1976 he was elected Secretary General of this organization. In the same year, the Black People's Convention (BPC) held its congress in Durban, which Biko could not attend. The BPC elected him honorary president.

The Soweto student massacre (June 16, 1976)

On June 16, 1976, the massacre of Soweto students occurred, who held the demonstration in order to oppose the educational policies installed by the National Party during the apartheid regime. In this way, the leaders of Soweto asked the Government of South Africa to negotiate the future of the country with Nelson Mandela, Roberto Sobukwe and Steve Biko.

Given the importance that Biko and the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) played in the organization and subsequent Soweto uprising, the authorities began to insistently point to him as the culprit. Therefore, after these events, Biko was arrested on several occasions. In August 1976, he was arrested and sentenced to solitary confinement for 101 days . In March 1977 he was again arrested, detained and released on bail. In July 1977 the same procedure was applied. He was never accused of acts of violence (these accusations would only come after his murder).

Murder

On August 18, 1977, Biko was detained at a police checkpoint in Port Elizabeth, and imprisoned under the Anti-Terrorism Act No. 83 of 1967 and interrogated by security police officers (who included Harold Snyman and Gideon Nieuwoudt). The interrogation took place in Police Room 619 (a renowned torture center) of the Sanlam Building, in Port Elizabeth. The interrogation lasted 22 hours and included torture and beatings that left him in a coma. From there he was taken (possibly on 20 August) to the Walmer police station, in a suburb of Port Elizabeth, where he was chained unconscious to a window grate for an entire day. It is presumed that while he was at this site he suffered another significant injury to his skull.

Twenty days later, on September 11, 1977, the police loaded him naked and handcuffed into the back of a Land Rover and drove him 1100 km even a prison with hospital facilities in Pretoria - in reality he could have been hospitalized in Port Elizabeth itself. He was almost dead due to previous injuries. He died shortly after his arrival at Pretoria Prison on 12 September. Police claimed that his death had been the result of a prolonged hunger strike, but an autopsy revealed multiple bruises and abrasions and that he had ultimately died from a brain hemorrhage generated by massive injuries to the skull, which many considered to be evidence that he had been brutally beaten by his captors, possibly with a stick.

News of Biko's death spread quickly around the world, and became a symbol of the abuses of the apartheid system. His death attracted more global attention than he had achieved during his lifetime. Protest meetings were held in several cities; Many were shocked that security authorities would kill such a prominent dissident leader. Biko's Anglican funeral, held on 25 September 1977 at King William Town's Victoria Stadium, took five hours and was attended by around 20,000 people.

The truth about Biko's death was exposed by Donald Woods, journalist, editor and close friend of Biko, along with Helen Zille, who would later become the leader of the Democratic Alliance political party. She was the 23rd a person who died under mysterious circumstances in the dungeons of South Africa.

Posthumous tributes

Stephen Biko became a symbol of the black movement and for equal rights, beyond differences of race or any kind.

• South African journalist Donald Woods wrote two books as a complaint for the murder of Biko in the hands of the racist government: Asking for Troubles and Biko.
• In May 1980, British musician Peter Gabriel released his third album as a soloist, which contains a song entitled "Biko", in memory of the South African leader. This song was also recorded by Joan Baez (in 1987), Simple Minds (in 1989), Manu Dibango (in 1994), Ray Wilson, and Paul Simon (in 2010).
• In 1987, British filmmaker Richard Attenborough filmed the film Cry Freedom "based on Donald Woods' two books and starred at Denzel Washington," about Steve Biko's life and death.
• The reggae Steel Pulse group has a song in homage to Steve Biko.
• In 1993, the New York hip hop band A Tribe Called Quest dedicated a tribute with his song “Steve Biko (stir it up)” from his album Midnight Marauders.
• Steve Biko is also mentioned in Johnny Clegg & Savuka's "Asimbonanga" song as a tribute, together with Victoria Mxenge (another antiapartheid activist).
• In 2016, for the 70th anniversary of its birth, Google dedicates its homepage to Steve Biko.