The Execution of a freedom fighter Steve Biko and his beautiful quotes.

 

The Execution of a freedom fighter Steve Biko and his beautiful quotes.

The Execution of a freedom fighter Steve Biko and his beautiful quotes. 

Steve Biko

It was in 1946 in the continent of Azania. A son was born from Biko lineage Steve Bantu Biko. His watch ⌚ began on the 18 November 1946. He was a Anti-Apartheid activist. Ideological an African Nationalist and African Socialist. He was at the forefront of a grass root Anti-Apartheid campaign known as the Black Consciousness Movement during the 1960's and 70's. Biko filled the vacuum within the country's African Nationalism that rose in the late 1960's following the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela and the banning of Sobukwe. May his blessed soul rest in peace. 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.

"The blacks are tired of standing at the touchlines to witness a game that they should be playing. They want to do things for themselves and all by themselves."

Letter to SRC Presidents, 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.

"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.

"Black man, you are on your own."

Slogan coined by Steve Biko for the South African Student's Organisation, SASO.

"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 most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed."

Speech in Cape Town, 1971

"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.

"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.

"It becomes more necessary to see the truth as it is if you realise that the only vehicle for change are these people who have lost their personality. The first step therefore is to make the black man come to himself; to pump back life into his empty shell; to infuse him with pride and dignity, to remind him of his complicity in the crime of allowing himself to be misused and therefore letting evil reign supreme in the country of his birth."

Following his arrest in August 1977, Biko was beaten to death by state security officers. Over 20,000 people attended his funeral. May His blessed soul multiply.