Written By: Edie Christian 

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“It is better to die for an idea that will live, than to live for an idea that will die.”  

Steve Biko

Steve Biko’s ideology and philosophical writings inspired and galvanised South African anti-apartheid movements. By foregrounding his ideology of Black Consciousness, Biko draws upon the global works of Black scholars in order to shape new forms of resistance during the apartheid era (1948-1990). Whilst being held in police custody in 1977, Biko was murdered and the killing covered up; his legacy and principles – as well as those of the Black Consciousness Movement – have evidently shaped anti-racist campaigns today. 

Apartheid – translated from the Afrikaans ‘apartness’ – was a series of segregationist policies introduced in 1948 and carried out by the National Party (NP). Racial prejudice and persecution had existed in South Africa since the arrival of European settlers, with the Dutch East India Company (VOC) officially colonising the region in 1652; they enslaved indigenous tribal populations such as the Xhosa and the Zulu. From 1795, the Cape region became a British colony; following the British abolition of slavery in 1834, tensions between the indigenous population and descendants of the colonists, who felt economically deprived, increased exponentially. Nationalist feelings only grew in the wake of the Second Boer War (1899-1902), evidenced by the pro-segregation policies of the NP (founded in 1914). Further tensions surrounding South African involvement in WWII and British occupation led NP politician Daniël François Malan to be elected prime minister in 1948. Malan introduced an institutionalised racial hierarchy; this minoritarian system meant that the white population dominated the political, economic, and social spheres. Initial policies of social segregation, such as public facilities and events, became known as petty apartheid, whereas grand apartheid denoted the more underlying separation of races regarding access to land and political rights. By 1964, the exile of the many leaders of the anti-apartheid African National Congress (ANC) – including Nelson Mandela – created a vacuum that allowed for the rise of the Black Consciousness Movement.  

Steve Biko (1946-1977) was the first president of the South African Students’ Organisation (SASO), officially launched in 1969. Influenced by global Black thinkers such as Frantz Fanon and Malcolm X, Biko began to formulate the ideology of ‘Black Consciousness’ at the centre of his politics. In a posthumous collection of his writings, I Write What I Like (1977), he posits that the ideology “seeks to demonstrate the lie that black is an aberration from the “normal” which is white.” Black Consciousness encouraged the Black community to take pride in what had been historically denigrated by white settlers – the values, culture, and religion of the indigenous population. Biko emphasises the relationship between legislative emancipation and decolonisation of the mind; these ideas are also apparent within W. E. B. Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk (1903). This text explored the notion of ‘double consciousness’ within the African American community, and the concept that racial minorities are forced to view themselves through the lens of the racist white society in which they live. Although the white population in South Africa has always been a minority, the legalisation of segregation, as well as centuries of colonialism, introduced a similar psychological challenge for the majority Black population. 

The apartheid government regarded Black Consciousness as a growing threat and placed a banning order on Biko in 1973. The repressive practice of banning originated from the 1950 Suppression of Communism Act, which regarded all political opposition as a communist threat. As a result, a banning order restricted a person’s travel and social interactions, as well as preventing them from public speaking or distributing written material. In Biko’s case, he was limited to speaking to one person at a time and forbidden from being a member of any political organisations. Several tactics were used to circumvent the strict measures of his ban: Biko struck up a close friendship with the white liberal editor of the Daily Dispatch, Donald Woods. Over time, Woods became more educated about the plights of Black South Africans, secretly writing Biko’s biography when he was himself banned. In 1977, Biko was arrested for travelling outside of, and therefore breaking, his banning order. He was severely beaten whilst in police custody and died of his injuries at just thirty years old. Although the official cause of death was listed as a hunger strike, Woods was convinced of police brutality and misconduct. His investigation into Biko’s death – and publication of photos of his body – led him to flee South Africa with his family in an almost unbelievable escape through Lesotho, dramatised in Richard Attenborough’s Cry Freedom. Biko’s death, the circumstances surrounding which are still largely unknown, came to symbolise the racial persecution sanctioned under apartheid and inspired domestic and international opposition to the regime. 

“One of the greatest legacies of the struggle that Biko waged – and for which he died – was the explosion of pride among the victims of apartheid”. On the twentieth anniversary of Biko’s death, President Nelson Mandela recognised the impact of the Black Consciousness Movement – with Biko as its leader – upon anti-apartheid thinking and movements. Growing domestic and international pressure had culminated in a 1992 referendum in which white South Africans voted overwhelmingly to end majority rule; Mandela became the first Black president in 1994, following his twenty-seven years in prison for his opposition to the regime. Steve Biko is commonly thought of as a martyr for the anti-apartheid cause; although the Black Consciousness Movement did decline in influence following his death, its legacy, as well as that of Biko’s, remains as reconciling the emancipation of the colonised mind with the liberation of the Black population of South Africa. 

Bibliography

Biko, Steve. I Write What I like : A Selection of His Writings. Oxford Heinemann, 1987. 

Chimere-dan, O. “Apartheid and Demography in South Africa.” Etude de La Population Africaine = African Population Studies, vol. 7, no. 7, 1992, pp. 26–36, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12321499, https://doi.org/10.11564/7-0-419. 

History.com editors. “Apartheid Comes to an End in South Africa | March 17, 1992.” HISTORY, 12 Mar. 2024, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/south-africa-votes-to-end-apartheid. 

“Nelson Mandela – Speeches – Address by President Nelson Mandela at 20th Anniversary of Steve Biko’s Death.” Www.mandela.gov.za, 1997, www.mandela.gov.za/mandela_speeches/1997/970912_biko.htm. 

Visser, Auteur: Lilian. “Apartheid – Rassenscheiding in Zuid-Afrika.” Historiek, 2021, historiek.net/apartheid-1948-1990/6826/. 

Woods, Donald. Biko. New York, H. Holt, 1987.