Steven Biko
Steven Biko
Stephen Bantu Biko was an anti-apartheid activist in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s...
NationalitySouth African
ProfessionActivist
Date of Birth18 December 1946
children wife arrogance
At the time of his death, Biko had a wife and three children for which he left a letter that stated in one part: “I've devoted my life to see equality for blacks, and at the same time, I've denied the needs of my family. Please understand that I take these actions, not out of selfishness or arrogance, but to preserve a South Africa worth living in for blacks and whites.
attitude reflection black
Being black is not a matter of pigmentation - being black is a reflection of a mental attitude.
ideas black-consciousness dies
It is better to die for an idea that will live, than to live for an idea that will die
country men black
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.
historical mind weapons
The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
jail want beats
I'm going to be me as I am, and you can beat me or jail me or even kill me, but I'm not going to be what you want me to be.
men black fields
In all fields black consciousness seeks to talk to the black man in a language that is his own
children ignorant gears
The system concedes nothing without demand, for it formulates its very method of operation on the basis that the ignorant will learn to know, the child will grow into an adult and therefore demands will begin to be made. It gears itself to resist demands in whatever way it sees fit.
thinking black elements
I think the central theme about black society is that it has got elements of a defeated society
men evil black
To a large extent the evil-doers have succeeded in producing at the output end of their machine a kind of black man who is man only in form. This is the extent to which the process of dehumanization has advanced.
lying believe people
Tradition has it that whenever a group of people has tasted the lovely fruits of wealth, security and prestige it begins to find it more comfortable to believe in the obvious lie and accept that it alone is entitled to privilege.
believe men goodness
We believe in the inherent goodness of man.
believe reality circles
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 artificially integrated circles are a soporfic to the blacks while salving the consciences of the few guilt-stricken whites.