Steve Biko

In every generation, role models exist. People of every gender have fought for human dignity and
true human equality for ages. Steve Biko is one such man that legitimately advanced the
principles of self determination and liberty. Steve Biko is one of the greatest revolutionaries and
Black Nationalists in history. “Biko” was a film (that starred Denzel Washington) I saw that detailed
Steve Biko’s life. It was created in the 1980’s, but I first seen the film in the 1990’s. He wanted
liberty and cultural cohesion for his people in South Africa. Steve Biko was an inspirational figure
of the Black Consciousness Movement. He lived from December 18, 1946 to September 1977.
He was the third child of his parents. His parents were Matthew Mzingaye and Alice Nokuzola
“Mamcethe” Biko. This movement would empower and mobilize much of the urban black
population. He has been called a martyr of the anti-apartheid movement. The reason was that he
died in police custody. King William's Town, South Africa was the precise location of his birth. Biko
agreed with activism and the attempt to empower black people. He is famous for advancing his
slogan of "Black is Beautiful." Steve Biko said that this slogan means that:
"...man, you are okay as you are, begin to look upon yourself as a human
being..." There was friction between the African National Congress in the 1970's. Ironically, the
ANC included Biko in their pantheon of struggle of heroes. they even put Biko's image on
campaign posters in South Africa's first non-racial elections in 1994. Steve Biko studied to be a
doctor at the University of Natal Medical School. Biko was from the Xhosa tribe. He was a very
smart man in speaking Xhosa, fluent English, and fairly fluent Afrikaans. At first, Steve Biko
desired to join the multiracial National Union of South African Students. Soon, he believed that

Black, Indian, and Coloured students (This word was an old school word in South Africa to define
what we call biracial students today) should have an organization of their own. So, he helped to
create the SASO or the South African Students' Organization. The SASO's agenda wanted
political self reliance and black consciousness to unify people. Biko was elected President of the
SASO in 1968. Biko worked in the World Student Christian Federation. Later, the SASO changed
into the BCM or the Black Consciousness Movement. Biko married Ntsiki Mashalaba in 1970.
They had two children together: Nkosinathi, born in 1971, and Samora. He also had two children
with Dr. Mamphela Ramphele (a prominent activist within the BCM): a daughter, Lerato, born in
1974, who died of pneumonia when she was only two months old, and a son,Hlu m elo, who was
born in 1978, after Biko's death. Biko also had a daughter with Lorraine Tabane, named Motlatsi,
born in May 1977. Steve Biko and his allies or colleagues created the Black People’s Convention
in December of 1972. The South African Students Movement or the SASM were made up of high
school level students that wanting liberation in South Africa against the evil of apartheid.
Because of his political beliefs, Biko was expelled from the University of Natal. February 1973 was
the time when Biko was banned from then apartheid South Africa. That meant that Steve Biko
couldn't speak to more than one person at a time and he couldn't speak in public. he couldn't even
write publicly or speak with the media. So, South Africa back then was an evil dictatorship. Biko
was the honorary President of the Black People's Convention. Steve Biko promoted self reliance
among his people. He created various funds (like the Zanempilo, the Zimele Trust Fund that
supported former political prisoners and their families, etc.) to develop grassroots organizations.
Biko still created protests to fight against injustice in South Africa. When terrorists murdered black
children in the Soweto Uprising in June 16, 1976, the savage apartheid government became to
target Biko more. Steve Biko was assaulted by terrorists pro-apartheid people. This tortured was
done in August 21, 1977. He was beaten to a coma in Police Room 619.
He was interrogated by Port Elizabeth security police people Harold Snyman and Gideon
Nieuwoudt. He was assaulted for 22 hours. He was injured again in September 11, 1977 and died
of injuries in September 12. The police of course claimed that Steve Biko died because of a
hunger strike. Yet, an autopsy found multiple bruises and abrasions. He suffered massive injuries
to the head causing a brain hemorrhage. This is strong evidence that Biko was assaulted to death
by his captors. Donald Woods is a friend of Biko's and journalist and now political leader Helen
Zille exposed the truth on Biko's murder. His funeral was attended by over 10,000 people. Many
ambassadors and diplomats from America including Western Europe attended his funeral. Woods
later would fight against apartheid. Donald Woods was a liberal white South African journalist.
Justice never came for the murderers of Biko. It was only when the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission came about when 5 former members of the South African security forces admitted to
killing Biko. They applied for amnesty. Stephen Biko authored a book titled: "I Write What I Like."
Stephen Biko wanted development of black consciousness in order to build confidence in the
black people. This confidence translates into more apt power for personal liberation in the amidst
of injustice. He had unto similar ideas of Frantz Fanon and Aime Cesaire. There is still economic
inequality in South Africa that ought to be address. That is why labor groups like the unionists of
COSATU want this problem to be addressed. This is similar to the American economic disparities
that are common. In the words of Zwelinzima Vavi, the president of the Congress of South
African Trade Unions, COSATU, "All we have done is to change the skin color of the driver, but in
terms of economic policy the direction remains the same as the one the apartheid regime was
traveling, which was inspired by Margaret Thatcher." What does that quote mean? It means
that the same reactionary economic policies of Thatcher are common place even in South
Africa. Thatcher is a monetarist and she had support from the late U.S. President Ronald
Reagan. COSATU worked with other groups like the African National Congress, and the
South African Communist Party (I don’t agree with Communism of course) to get rid of
the evil of apartheid. Yet, Vavi said that there needs to be more done to have the income
inequality to be addressed from South Africa. In America, we have similar problems
since our economic inequalities widening in the past 30 years. The Republicans have had
national power for 20 of these 30 years. Unions have little sway even in the Bill Clinton’s
administration, since corporate free trade grew. Wall Street was further deregulated. Even
the current President Barack Obama have given Wall Street at least $12 to $14 trillion.
The government of South Africa even blunt a nationwide strike of public sector workers
who want economic justice. The real power in supposedly Black-ruled South Africa is
rooted in what Mr. Vavi calls the "discredited Washington consensus that is based on the
supremacy of the markets and the limited role of the state.” This consensus governs our
policies in the USA too. For if you privatize everything in a society (that Austrian
economics desires and that Ron Paul would love to do long term), then the
Corporations & lobbyists will take over most of our services in America. There would be
more conflicts of interests in economics and politics. That is why populists want to crush
privatization in order to give adequate public services to the people. To allow Wall Street
to have the freedom to do whatever it wants without restrictions will cause fascism.
Fascism allows for speculating by billionaires and hedge funds to run amok. The
privatized Federal Reserve bank has been influenced by the same robber barons. This
cartoonish notion that all government regulations are bad by definition, and the
consequent reluctance of the Austrian Schoolers over at Lewrockwell.com to even
mention the word "derivatives," presumably since doing so would call attention to the fact
that the quadrillion-dollar derivatives bubble could never have been created to begin with
had the Glass-Steagall Act -- a form of "government intervention" -- not been repealed in
1999.
Keen insight in opposing spying agencies is real. Back in WWI, domestic spying groups illegally
tried to end dissent of WWI. This network evolved into the national secret police network that
changed into the modern FBI, the CIA, NSA, etc. The FBI and other groups violated human civil
liberties. COINTELPRO was a big program of the FBI that tried to harm and destroy groups that
opposed the mainstream governmental policies. Many people were falsely tagged with the label
Communist by their own U.S. government if they supported civil rights, labor rights, anti-war
philosophies, and equal rights for any minority group of people. Even today in the Bush and now
Obama administration, the FBI regularly use entrapment to get low level patsies in jail (under the
guise of fulfilling enforcement during the era of the “war on terror”). One example is how Black
Muslim men face life in prison for a terror plot when it was conceived by a paid FBI operative. The
men are no threat to American security. This is similar to the FBI informant exploiting the
harmless men in Miami, Florida, back in the days of the Bush Jr. administration. These men are
poor. Ironically, FBI head Eric Holder wants the federal government to have federal prosecution of
marijuana prosecutions in California even if voters in the state decide to decriminalize pot next
month. Regardless of what you think of marijuana, the War on Drugs have violated our civil
liberties and our other cherished freedoms. Even if you don’t want to use marijuana, a person with
meere possession of it This is the fruit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
I have no alignment for the Democratic establishment though. They are the ones
who hypocritically call for tolerance, but promote the celebrity gossip,
entertainment, and other evil cultures in America. They are intolerant of people that
disagree with them politically by saying almost every name under the sun toward
people not allying with their extreme politically correct point of view. They have a
false sense of moral & intellectual superiority when no man and no woman has a
monopoly on idealism. They yell about George Tiller (and I don't agree with Tiller
being murdered at all), but they never report on the innocent Pro-Life people in
America being killed by pro-abortion radical extremists. They just like the

Steve Biko