Stephen Bantu Biko South African activist By Kupakwashe

Stephen Bantu Biko South African activist By Kupakwashe Sungai

Who was he? • Stephen Bantu Biko was a South African antiapartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, .

Early life • Raised in a poor Xhosa family, Biko grew up in Ginsberg township in the Eastern Cape. He was born to a father who was a government clerk and a law student and a mother who was a domestic worker. He attended Lovedale Mission School until he was expelled, along with his brother for their political views. He then later attended another private school called St. Francis College where he finished high school. In 1966, he began studying medicine at the University of Natal, where he joined the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS). Strongly opposed to the apartheid system of racial segregation and white-minority rule in South Africa Biko was frustrated that NUSAS and other anti-apartheid groups were dominated by white liberals, rather than by the blacks who were most affected by apartheid. He believed that even when well-intentioned, white liberals failed to comprehend the black experience and often acted in a paternalistic manner. He developed the view that to avoid white domination, black people had to organise independently, and to this end he became a leading figure in the creation of the South African Students' Organisation (SASO) in 1968. Membership was open only to "blacks", a term that Biko used in reference not just to Bantu-speaking Africans but also to Coloureds and Indians. He was careful to keep his movement independent of white liberals, but opposed anti-white racism and had various white friends and lovers. The white-minority Party government were initially supportive, seeing SASO's creation as a victory for apartheid's ethos of racial separatism.

What did he do for apartheid? • He was at the forefront of a grassroots antiapartheid campaign known as the Black Consciousness Movement during the late 1960 s and 1970 s

Facts about him: arrest and death • • • In 1980 Peter Gabriel wrote and sung a song dedicated to Stephen Bantu Biko called Biko. He had 5 children Hlumelo Biko, Nkosinathi Biko, Samora Biko, Lerato Biko and Motlatsi Biko. His wife was Ntsiki Mashalaba. They were married for 7 years, from 1970 to 1977 the year of his death. On 18 August 1980 Biko was arrested at a roadblock in Port Elizabeth. He was accused of being a terrorist. He was kept naked and tied to a bed for 20 days He was interrogated and tortured. On the 6 th of September he was given a serious head injury. He was kept tied to window bars and doctors said he was fine when they came to check his health. On the 11 th of September the police drove Steve from Port Elizabeth to hospital in Pretoria. The journey was 700 km long. He was naked in the back of a police van. He was frothing at the mouth and unable to speak. On the 12 th of September they arrived in Pretoria. A doctor saw him but it was too late, Steve had died alone in his jail cell. In Pretoria 1977 Stephen Biko dies in custody.

May his soul continue to rest in peace

Steve Biko Quotes • The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. • Being black is not a matter of pigmentation being black is a reflection of a mental attitude. • Black Consciousness is an attitude of the mind a way of life, the most positive call to emanate from the black world for a long time. • It becomes more necessary to see the truth as it is if you realize that the only vehicle for change are these people who have lost their personality.

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