It is September and the blossoming of the spring will always remind us of a flower that was killed before it could radiate beauty. You might hear about Steve Bantubonke Biko and it will make you wonder why he was killed. What a terrible waste of a young life. He was only 30 years old.
Anyway, the man is NOT dead because a prophetic spirit cannot be killed. Well, why should the living still care about a young man who did little in his life except engage in ideas, translate them into practical self-help programmes and be an example of the urgent need for black people to be self-determining?
You see, some men — despite their age or circumstance — have the power to shape the way people think about culture, identity, history and the meaning of life.
From the little I know of this Biko, he was a dreamer, a prophet, a writer, an intellectual, a philosopher, a thinker, a strategist. Now, we have to ask ourselves, how a man can be so many highly esteemed when he was a university drop-out.
In case, you did not know, yes, he was a university drop-out.
He quit his medical studies at the University of Natal because he got disillusioned with an education that prepares the young to be part of the middle class.
He desired to be the agent of change he wanted to see among his own people, in his own community. When he left the racist university he chose to live and work among the poor in Ginsberg, in the blood-soaked Eastern Cape.
But there is no doubt that the death of Biko on September 12 1977 had a huge impact on race relations, politics, psychology and history in this part of the country.
Perhaps the only death that could be compared to his would be that of former president Nelson Mandela’s one day. Of course, no one dares compare the two. The one was a young prophet, the other a dreamer.
Also, the one was a self-educated philosopher and thinker, the other a product of Wits law school. Well, it is not for me to explain why a 30-year-old youth should matter 32 years after his death.
Some people will tell you that it has been an enormously long period of time. But thanks God and the ancestors, his death has been cleared and is less of a controversial matter, now.
There are many other unsung heroes and heroines who have disappeared, died and buried in mysterious circumstances because they were not Biko.
We must not forget them, too, when we acknowledge, celebrate and recognise Biko’s pivotal contribution to get us where we are. In fact the death of Biko is one of the first cases of recorded apartheid brutality. This was a man who was monstrously murdered by banging his skull against iron rails and the wall simply because he dared stand up for his rights and fight back when he was slapped around.
Of course, the brainwashing education that graduates receive at university does not teach them to stand up for anything. Instead, if you are educated you learn the OK Rule: obey and conform!
You see, we should always remember that sometimes when men are drunk on power and want to hold onto it indefinitely, they will not hesitate to kill and murder those who stand up to them and question what they do.
Biko was a condemned person because of his university drop-out thoughts, ideas and convictions. At the time, which is a short 32 years ago, South Africa was a heinous state. There were police men, sergeants, commissioners, cabinet ministers and other senior members of government who did not hesitate to snuff a life out like it was a cigarette.
Yet this was a young man who was neither an educated lawyer, qualified doctor nor a learned professor. He was, as we say, a university drop-out who was, essentially, an ordinary township man.
It was precisely for being that, an ordinary township man who liked his intellectual engagement, debate, hanging out and sometimes enjoying a drink or two that he was brutally murdered.
I do not remember if anyone has been found guilty of manslaughter. But the outcome of his death and the manner of it is something that continues to present this new society with a political problem: how do we live in peace with murderers walking among us?
Well, Biko is for many people a township intellectual and political hero who had “no fears”.
His death should always remind us: no man should be killed because of his thoughts, ideas and convictions.
Above all, he was a university drop-out who refused to be indoctrinated and conditioned by the educational system.
From the little I heard about Biko, I really believe in the 30 years that he lived, he did more than any other South African black man ever did in that short space of time. I don’t know if I can compare the man’s influence to any other south African not even Nelson Mandela for that matter. I just wonder how the Struggle for the liberation of African would have turned out to be if he lived much longer. Would we be having New Bantu education (township and rural public schools) that we have today where the majority of our people are still given second grade education, would we still have the blacks only University that are under equiped. A black man is in charge of the government of the day but all that’s change is that our former liberator have taken the place of our oppresors and everything else is the same and sometime worst(the matchbox houses our oppressors built are far better than what our present rulers built for the poor, and yes some people will try to say they have built more for the poor).
Black man you are on your own! I wish we had a lot of Steve Biko’s and less of the present day Black rulers! read, Mandela, Mbeki and Zuma!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why are you trying to glamorise “the university drop” status. I don’t think he wished to drop out from school. It is just that the circumstances were unfavourable. Black people need education and we should desist from misinforming our young. .
@Yared
I understand your concern but kids are not that naive to misunderstand the context are they? Also remember that many very successful people were university-dropouts but they invariably had rich parents.
I think what Sandile is trying to convey by Biko’s “university drop-out” badge of honor, is that he had the intelligence and foresight to figure out that he did not want to be part of the system but could contribute to society in far more effective ways.
I have great respect for Steve Biko, a man of vision and integrity. His treatment and death at the hands of security police were appalling, and the cover-ups, phone tappings and contempt for the law were shocking. Even worse was that nobody stood trial to answer for them. I hope and pray that SA never, never goes back to that place.
Dear Mr Harris
I would venture that Mr Biko would have been an even greater intellect had he not been a university dropout, and this was a coincidence, rather than an element in his greatness. I am afraid I must disagree with your iconoclastic view that he ‘did not want to be part of the system’. Willful ignorance is never a badge of honour. There are many successful university drop-outs like Mr Biko and Mr Gates – and many did not have rich parents, your cynical corollary. They had guts, dedication, integrity, talent, ambition and sheer, simple hard work, attributes which command very little respect in our current milieu.
Does anyone know who orchestrated the murder of Chris Hani? And why?
Steve Biko matters because he is an icon and a true representative of SA society.
He was murdered callously.
He was supported by people like Donald Woods of the Daily Dispatch – who in turn was accosted by the State.
He was ahead of his time.
There are some periods in SA history that we should truly reflect on: the death of Chris Hani springs to mind – a time when SA trembled on the brink of chaos. And we should ask ourselves whether this is the future they envisaged.
I believe that all SA citizens should be mobilised against corruption and against self-serving politicians who are supposed to be an example to all of us in lifting us out of this morass.
And all of us should celebrate the little successes that occur, whether white or black, such as Tokyo’s cost restrictions or Helen’s determination to stamp out corruption.
We have too few good examples to waste any…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK-PYaqIe7g&feature=related
Minister of Police Jimmy Kruger said at the time of Biko’s murder :’It leaves me cold’. Does anyone remember when or if Kruger died, or how? Does anybody care ? Did anybody write a song for him ?
When I couldn’t figure what I was meant to do as whitey in the struggle – I didn’t fancy cutting off people’s ears or being a Quattro camp guard – Biko spoke the word. He said the only thing whites can do is to get their own fellow whites used to the fact that there is going to be a black government , and to accept it. Simple.
Now I was working in Mpumalanga ( E.Tvl then )with heavy AWB types. Challenge ! Especially as PPAWU strikes and toyi-toying and kill the boer chants were pissing them off. But I did what Biko said…and it worked. Before too long the ‘kommuniste’ and the AWB were having real discussions, together, over a beer, or even a brandewyn, and learning about each others hopes and fears and dreams and accepting the future, together. This is true. I witnessed it. It shows pure, prophetic and insightful GENIUS !
Viva Biko ! Viva !
Biko cribbed all “his” ideas from Frantz Fanon, a very bright black man from the Caribbean who DID finish his medical degree and who is far more authentic in every sense than Biko will ever be. Biko’s violent death is all that elevates him into a “special” figure, at least among some. Without that, and Minister Jimmy Kruger’s callous remark (“his death leaves me cold”) Biko would be as instantly forgettable as all the many other strugglistas.
@Mark Robertson
“Willful ignorance is never a badge of honour”
Biko was far from “willfully ignorant” and I would argue that if he did complete his university education his sharp intellect and fiery spirit would have probably have been blunted and smothered by his apartheid university education and all the “trappings” that go with it. Anyway, I don’t think you will ever understand what a university education under the apartheid regime really meant and I don’t expect you to either.
Issues, @Jon? I think Biko’s death represented just about the lowest point we as white SA sank to. We snuffed out his life brutally, bludgeoning him to death A: Because we could, with impunity, and B: Because he scared us with his truth, and C: Because we had no leaders of integrity and courage, and D: Because we were trapped between liking our privilege and being scared of the police thugs. Yes, WE. You, too, Jon.
Dear Jimmy Kruger…
Does his death still leave you cold, Minister of Police,
this battered, bruised and wounded man
dead in chains upon the floor?
What do birds do, perched in trees
or children in a park?
Would you smile and warm to them,
try to fathom how they bring
such lightness to the words they sing?
Or do you shut your eyes because
a father’s song was stopped by force?
Has the coldness edged away,
age tempered the uncaring grey?
Can someone weak as you
make memory bring him back –
restore him to the world he knew?
for Nkosinathi Biko
September, 1977
Why the emphasis on Steve Biko being a university drop out? Rather focus on his legacy, its now more relevant than ever before. He was of the opinion that “all in all, the black man has become a shell, a shadow of a man, completely defeated, drowning in his own misery, a slave, an ox bearing the yoke of oppression with sheepish timidity”. And unless we deal with this issue we will remain defeated and continue to bear the yoke of oppression. Christo van der Rheede
I remember the day of his death as clearly now as then. I was on holiday and on Ramsgate Beach with my two sons. We were horrified and also actually scared of some consequences. We had huge respect for the man and were convinced that one day he would lead the Country. On the same beach people were talking about it and laughing and showing great happiness that he had died. That frightened us even more. Fortunately we are still all here and happy and enjoying our beautiful country. It never ceases to amaze me what can happen in 32 years!!Let us never forget Steve Biko.
@ Dave Harris
“Anyway, I don’t think you will ever understand what a university education under the apartheid regime really meant and I don’t expect you to either. ”
And there you go again. As I said previously…
“you end up feeling justified in not engaging with a subject but rather ‘discrediting’ a person, either in your own mind, or in the minds of your audience. Since you introduce a similar argument in almost everything you post on the internet, it is a serious problem. ”
But I will bite. What was “really meant”? And how do you know? If you know, why wouldn’t others?
Feel free to respond with relation to Biko. I am very curious to hear about the seemingly supernatural powers you believe the Nats had that would blunten his intellect and dampen his spirit. What would Biko have lost by completing a degree in medicine? How would he, as Mr Memela put it, be indcotrinated and conditioned.
I suspect that that comes from the same place. Everyone that disagrees with you is either a racist wanting to restore apratheid, does not understand or is indoctrinated. Is that correct?
Personally, I think Biko was very important to SA and more people should think about what he said. I also think that the constant attacks on ‘intellectuals’ and ‘discrediting’ of those that disagree with you are taking us down a previously trodden path. A dangerous one.
@ Sandile….a question
Are there young black thinkers out there who could bring the same level of intellectual excellence to issues affecting South Africa as Biko did, but who are stifled by ruling party ideology.
South Africa is richer for having the icon and poorer for not having the leader, university educated or not.
@mallencolly
“What was “really meant”? And how do you know? If you know, why wouldn’t others?”
Please take the initiative to research this for yourself. I see no need to spell out why an apartheid education oppressed blacks or even why kids wanted to burn down their own schools. If you don’t get it you never will. Sorry.
“constant attacks on ‘intellectuals’ and ‘discrediting’ of those that disagree with you”
Which “intellectuals”? Do you mean perhaps mean those politically motivated pseudo-intellectuals who are mere products of the apartheid system that continue to hinder our transformation? How about not hijacking this blog but showing some courage by addressing my questions in the correct blog: http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/bertolivier/2009/09/05/why-obe-has-not-worked-in-south-africa/
How can you accuse others of racism while you continue to show support for the DA (NP-lite) party and even justified HZ’s all male cabinet? ( http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/talkback/2009/05/15/is-helen-zille-justified-in-appointing-a-pale-male-western-cape-cabinet/ ) Remember buddy, you cannot erase your electronic footprints.
Once again Mr Harris
Instead of explaining your thinking, you
1) Say the person doesnt understand
2) Accuse people of being brainwashed and
3) Accuse them of racism (with no more the evidence than the ANC Big Lie)
And where did I accuse anyone of racism (that didnt deserve it)?
I take issue with your generalisation of “the brainwashing education that graduates receive at university”. I was one of Steven Biko’s teachers at the University of Natal. Steven wasn’t there long enough for any brainwashing to have taken effect. The content of the courses in his pre-medical programme made brainwashing impossible: Physics, Chemistry, Botany, Zoology, among others. Because the White Government didn’t really care to qualify non-White medical doctors, the programme was demanding enough to guarantee a high drop-out rate. (At the University for Indians on Salisbury Island, Durban, a pass was 90%.) Steven Biko did not leave the programme; he failed in it. The screening process was rigid. Only the very best (few) achievers were accepted. That Steven was accepted was proof he had exceptional intelligence. Everybody in that programme was at the very top of the food chain. The programme was not preparing anybody for a “middle class” existence. Those who eventually finished the seven-years, entered the ranks of the elite. Some of them must still be around. Try contacting them to increase your extremely “little” knowledge of Steven Biko.
So Biko dropped out because he failed his courses. He wasn’t clever enough or diligent enough even to pass undergrad courses which most students easily sail through. Clearly he was no towering intellectual then , was he? He was, in fact, something of a flop. And his book simply cribbed Fanon. So where does the myth of this towering intellect spring from? Spin-doctors?
@Jon
From reading various comments you’ve made on TL, it would seem that you cannot bring yourself to say anything positive about black South Africans or to acknowledge your culpability in the state of affairs in South Africa. As far as I can see, you blame everything bad on the present regime and then rail against anyone who blames Apartheid, meanwhile not seeing that you are opposite side of the same coin.
Tragic…
Yes he was young when he died, but I don’t think that his death was a waste, because in the short period of years he lived, he left a legacy that will is very hard to immitate nor replace. He touched so many people’s lives, and we still quote him to this day. As a 22 year old female, I was thinking the day I get married and have a son I will name my son after him “Bantubonke”- that’s how much infuence he lived behind… So many ppl live beyond 50 years or even 100, but never touch a soul, and never making a slightest difference in any person’s life, but he did at the age of 30. I would rather live for 30 years and have impact rather than to live 100 years and never leave any legacy behind… His journey was short, but the impact is far too long that it still touches us today, and the next generation to come will be still looking up to him. And for that we say, WE SALUTE IQHAWE…
Biko stood in a class of his own. His razor sharp intellect, his grasp of the moment, his prodigious memory of what he read, his command of English (not a string of bombastic words), his famous knack for a repartee. Read his exchange with the Afrikaner judge and you cant help see that Biko was light years of his time.
Well was he a drop out? I dont know but I feel those studies would have wasted his time. His mission was much bigger than medicine. Those were the days when speaking good English did not auger well for your future with your white Afrikaans Bantu University lecturer.
It upset a lot of people in SA then that a black guy was reading Jean Paul Satre, Langston Hugh,WEB du Bois, Chinua Achebe, Joseph Conrad, Leopold Senghor, Ngugi wa Thiongo and etc .. what today we do without the sky falling down.
The world is so vast and interesting and Biko took it all!
Think of a probable example of Ramaphosa doing Constitutional Law III and being failed by a UNISA law professor because Rampahosa’s idea of constitutional Law duid not ite up with Roman Dutch law.
Universities are for the rest of us, who regurgitate used knowledge and who must be taught not to stray beyond the twin-line strictures of academic discipline. In the end it convinced those who feared Biko that the only way was “to remove him permanently from sopciety.”