Biography 4
ANC centenary 2012
Steve Biko
An inspirational figure in the student movement against apartheid, Steve Biko is also famous
for founding South Africa's ‘Black Consciousness
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movement’. His murder in police custody in 1977
caused an international outcry and Biko became a
universal symbol of resistance against oppression,
with his memory praised in films, books and songs.
Born in 1946 in King William's Town, Steve’s parents
believed that the way to achieve independence and a
better life was through education. However his
experience of school was extremely negative. He
received his primary education during the time of the
Bantu Education Act which was designed to give
black young people the skills to become manual labourers, and nothing more. After being
expelled from one of his first schools for 'anti-establishment' behaviour, he received his first
taste of the oppressive apartheid regime.
As a medical student studying at the University of Natal, Steve Biko founded the South
African Students' Organisation (SASO) which played a key role in the anti-apartheid
struggle. He created a new way of thinking which became known as ‘Black Consciousness’.
"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 ... 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.”
In 1973 he was 'banned' by the government and restricted to his home town. From 1975 1977, he was detained four times by the authorities who found his liberation teachings highly
threatening: "We believe in an entirely non-racial society. We believe that in our country,
there shall be no majority, no minority, there shall just be people. And these people will have
the same status before the law and the same political rights before the law."
On 12 September 1977 he was brutally beaten during police interrogation and died of brain
damage. The doctors who were called to treat him ignored his horrific injuries. His funeral
was attended by diplomats from 13 western countries, and over 10,000 South Africans from
every corner of the country, with thousands more prevented from attending.
Coming just after the 1976 Soweto uprising, Steve Biko’s death intensified the wave of
resistance in South Africa. The apartheid government responded by banning SASO and 16
other anti-apartheid organisations. Internationally, the UN Security Council took the
important step of imposing a mandatory arms embargo against South Africa.
Despite his untimely death, Steve Biko became a powerful symbol of hope for a generation
of black South Africans. He inspired them to believe in themselves and to fight apartheid
under the catchphrase ‘liberation before education’. His memory still lives on in popular
culture across the world:
"You can blow out a candle, but you can't blow out a fire.
Once the flames begin to catch, the wind will blow it higher."
From ‘Biko’, a song by Peter Gabriel, 1980