Stephen Bantu Biko: The Black Consciousness Movement

Introduction

Steve Biko, otherwise known as Stephen Bantu Biko, played an important role in ending the South African aparthied of the 1960s to 1970s and fighting against black segregation. He did this through leading the South African Students' Organization (SASO) as the president in 1969, which led to him founding the Black Consciousness Movement. Steve faced many arrests as a result of the work he did against the apartheid and died while in police custody on September 12, 1977. "They had to kill him to prolong the life of the apartheid." -Nelson Mandela

Early Life

He was born on the 18th December 1946 in the Eastern Province (modern day Eastern Cape), South Africa. His father, Mzingaye Biko, was an educated man who worked as a policeman

He wrote to many schools concerned about Steve's education and got his younger brother accepted at a Catholic barding School called St Francis College. Khaya said, "Steve was expelled for absolutely no reason at all. But in retrospect I welcome the South African government’s gesture of exposing a really good politician. I had unsuccessfully tried to get Steve interested in politics. The police were able to do in one day what had eluded me for years. This time the great giant was awakened."

After receiving very good grades at St Francis, he enrolled at the University of Natal Medical School in the 'non-European' (black) section in 1966. He lived in segregated living quarters with other Black students. He was interested in the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) and was elected to be the Black Section's SRC (Students Representative Council) during his first year. He was unimpressed with the fact that White liberals dominated the body and made no effort in terms of representing the black students'

During this occasion he talked about why the organisation was created and what role they planned for it to play. He emphasized that it was not an aim of the organisation to replace NUSAS as the national student organisation, but did talk about the fact that it was overruled by White students which made little sense in a country where the majority of people are black.

In July 1970, Steve was appointed chair of SASO Publications at the 1st General Students Council of SASO. Using the pen name Frank Talk, Steve began to publish articles in SASO newsletters with the heading "I Write What I Like". The title expresses his freedom of thought and speech, by writing what he likes he emphasizes the lack of barriers and restrictions in the content his articles.

The years from 1969 to 1971 have been described by Mamphela Ramphele as "the trial period" as during these years community projects in and around Durban were experimented by SASO. The students commenced with various community-uplifting projects. Outside of Wentworth, South Durban they began operating a clinic and launched literacy, health and agricultural programmes. Over the next few years these projects helped to improve tangible conditions and create a sense of empowerment and determination, which was a central aim of the Black Consciousness