Steve Biko

Steve Biko (1946 - 1977), full name Stephen Biko, was a South African political activist. He was founder and leader of the black consciousness movement and was honorary president of the Black People's Convention, an umbrella group of over seventy black organizations. He was a highly popular radical leader, but was was served with police orders restricting his movements, freedom of speech, and freedom of association. Biko was detained four times by police, and died while in police custody, allegedly because of beatings by police. After his death, he became a symbol of heroic resistance to apartheid regime.

Wisdom & Quotes

• The myth of integration as propounded under the banner of the liberal ideology must be cracked because it makes people believe that something is being achieved when in reality the artificiality integrated circles are soporific to the blacks while salving the consciences of the few guilt-stricken whites.
• 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.
• 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.
• The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
• You are either alive and proud, or you are dead, and when you are dead, you can't care anyway.
• We are aware that the white man is sitting at our table. We know he has no right to be there; we want to remove him from our table, strip the table of all the trappings put on it by him, decorate it in true African style, settle down and then ask him to join us on our terms if he wishes.

Bernadette D McAliskey