STEVE BIKO was not racist.
He would say: “We are not anti-white, but we are purely pro-black.”
Since there were now other races besides blacks living in South Africa, Biko did not wish for a racially-divided society.
Rather he was planning to establish a society where everyone, regardless of race, had the same status before the law, same access to health care, education and wealth.
But he was concerned about his own people first and wanted them to be independent and unified.
Biko prayed for the merging of the many black revolutionary groups like South African Students Organisation (SASO), Black People’s Convention (BPC) and ANC into one solid front.
This would unite blacks and give them one purpose and strategy which would yield the greatest results. He was selfless and never concerned about personal gains.
Biko was firmly against the fragmentation of the black community as they were made to speak as divided groups of Xhosa, Zulu and other tribes.
This was not how the political struggle had been fought in South Africa and was a way to divide and conquer blacks.
He argued that blacks were for a common cause and rejected anyone who tried to disrupt black unity. Azania (South Africa) needs to be united into one people who abhor racialism, tribalism and all other forms of sectionalism.
It’s important to note this was a time of apartheid and there was no one-man-one-vote for blacks in South Africa during that time.
So these seemingly very basic rights that Biko was demanding were seen as outright defiance to the apartheid social order of that time.
On the other hand, Biko was winning international recognition as his movement was known to officials in the US and UK, among other places.
Although of Xhosa origin, Biko spoke fluent English.
He eloquently uttered well-thought-out words that he would not take back.
He had a clear vision of what blacks wanted and needed nothing but time and his people to achieve it.
Biko was against capitalism and was for a socialist form of governance that would be people not corporation-oriented.
This again would make him a marked man because he swore and encouraged blacks to carry out wealth redistribution programmes such as land reform once in power.
He said any form of political freedom which did not touch on the proper distribution of wealth was meaningless.
Whites had kept the greater part of South Africa’s wealth to themselves.
Biko did not wish for token freedom that did not address the fundamental imbalances.
Yet this is the compromise that Nelson Mandela took when he signed for freedom instead of independence for black South Africa.
Biko prophesied that if such a change were to take place, blacks would remain poor, with only a few of them reaching the middle class.
Biko found it pointless to pursue the aspirations of black people while working on a platform which is meant for the oppression of blacks.
This is because he realised most of these platforms were created by government for the purpose of controlling the cause of blacks.
He said destroying such white-backed platforms like the Bantustan system was the first step that needed to be taken by any black leader because once you participate in them, you are playing the whiteman’s game. Mandela should have taken these jewels of advice to heart if he wished for any physical improvement for blacks in South Africa.
Just as it remains in South Africa today, in Biko’s time there was unequal distribution of wealth.
The neighbourhoods were segregated and whites lived in well-planned houses while blacks were relegated to undeveloped areas in which they improvised their domiciles.
All the natural resources were also out of reach for the blacks and were making the whites exceedingly wealthy.
Biko believed if blacks could learn to live under a capitalist apartheid system, they could undoubtedly learn to live in a non-racist socialist society.
The blacks had no will for vengeance and simply wanted a better future.
Yet whites imagined Biko as their nemesis and thus they came after his organisation with sanctions and violence.
By 1973, Biko and some of his close associates such as Mopethlu Mohabi were banned from King Williams Town which was Biko’s place of birth.
His activism flourished in the poor black community of the segregated neighbourhoods and became a haven for black revolutionaries.
Biko was basically put under house arrest as he was restricted from travelling, appearing in public and speaking to more than one person at a time.
Regardless of this pressure, Biko remained functional.
He noticed that many black activists were being arrested and their children left unattended.
He began a Trust Fund for Political Prisoners, to ensure that the families of prisoners’ did not suffer after an arrest.
Biko also started a clinic in 1975 to teach blacks self-reliance.
The Government banned him from his own clinic and stopped him from participating in running it.
The clinic was sabotaged and stuff like TB drugs that were administered for free in the rest of the country were sold to the clinic.
Biko continued advising and guiding the blacks from his confines and had become the spiritual head of the black youths.
His movement was behind most of the activism that was taking place among the youth in South Africa’s urban areas.
By 1976, almost 500 black activists had been killed by the police since the founding of the Black Consciousness Movement.
The Government was refusing to change policies, but Biko remained optimistic.
He believed in his people and taught them that if the Government was to step up its efforts to oust them, they should undertake better calculations to achieve their goals.
On August 5 1976, Mohabi was arrested and killed by security police.
It was said he hung himself, but the two doctors who did his post mortem a day after concluded he was killed.
By August 29, both doctors were detained under the Internal Security Act.
Mohabi’s widow spoke out and for this, she was arrested a year later, leaving her two children unattended.
The same fate would be met by Biko in August 1977 when he was detained for a fourth time since he became politically active.
Biko was severely tortured during interrogation to the extent he fell into a comma.
Naked and handcuffed, Biko was thrown into the back of a truck which would be driven for over 1 000 kilometres to Pretoria.
At a prison hospital in Pretoria, Biko was pronounced dead on arrival on September 12.
Pictures of his corpse showed numerous body bruises and a bulging forehead, implying a blow to the head possibly killed him.
The police claimed he bumped his head on the wall while resisting arrest.
Minister of Justice, James Kruger, said: “I’m not glad Biko is dead, but I’m not sorry either.”
Kruger and the police claimed Biko died from a hunger strike, but the days he was arrested were too few for him to starve to death.
Kruger took these insensitive remarks back when Biko’s assassination became a matter of international concern.
The former SA security police eventually accepted responsibility for the assault and assassination of Biko and sought amnesty.
The blacks refused to forgive the murderers arguing that if they did, there would be no peace in South Africa.
Forty-five people had died in police custody since the Detention Without Trial Act was passed in 1963.
Biko was the 20th man to die in police custody since June 1976.
Ten thousand people mourned him on September 25.
At 30, Biko was just young enough to be a leader of all SA youths and mature enough to do so wisely. He was saluted and continues to be honoured by the ANC although he was not a member and this testifies to his greatness.
May Biko’s teachings on black consciousness continue to reverberate until blacks in SA and beyond realise true independence and empowerment.