By Andile Mngxitama Dear all, there are some people who continue to insult me for my piece “It’s Mandela Guys!”. I ask anyone to provide me with solid evidence if your answer to the following question is yes: Is there any evidence that Robert Sobukwe and Steve Biko ever underwent military training? Yhuuu the gun …
By Andile Mngxitama The story of Steve Biko’s assassination is similar to that of Martin Luther King, Jr (MLK). The apartheid police did the initial attack on Biko; the doctors concealed it; and the judges and prosecutors made sure that the killers were never made to account. So the whole white establishment assassinated him. The …
By Andile Mngxitama Steve Biko systematized black radical thought in South Africa (SA) into Black Consciousness (BC). Like most thinkers Biko didn’t invent the ideas that he had called BC, he merely systematized them. Lots of people who resist giving Biko his place as supreme thinker on the black condition have no problem granting Karl …
By Andile Mngxitama The emergence of tribalism in South Africa (SA) is a reflection of how deep the depoliticization of the youth has gone since 1994. It is mostly the youth who are pushing tribalism today. The youth of the 1980s would never uphold tribe against black solidarity. The broad Black Consciousness Movement was very …
Photo credit: SA History Online By Yerushka Chetty One hundred and fifty nine (159) years ago the first ship carrying Indians docked at Durban Harbor, in KwaZulu-Natal. Many others followed. They were brought to South Africa (SA) to become indentured slaves. Steve Biko would later classify them as black in terms of black consciousness. 159 …
By Andile Mngxitama Often when I’m asked, ungumni? Or in Setswana we would say o ana eng or in Sepedi o bina eng? Generally I say “ndingum-black” or my totem is BLACK. This is not a refusal of my roots but a political choice of my identity. I’m Black first, before I’m anything else. I’m …
This paper was written by Bantu Stephen Biko for a SASO Leadership Training Course in December 1971. It features as chapter 9 in Biko’s “I Write What I Like”. We have defined blacks as those who are by law or tradition politically, economically and socially discriminated against as a group in the South African society …
By Andile Mngxitama Biko has been packaged as the poster boy of the post-1994 anti-black settlement. Biko is under siege, his name invoked by all from the ANC to the Democratic Alliance. Artists and merchants of fashion are also cashing in on his legacy. Each year, Biko’s memory is appropriated to serve anti-black agendas. Commemoration …
By BO Staff Writer The following statement was previously published on the Black First Land First website: Steve Biko, through his own example, teaches us that true leadership is selfless. Black First Land First (BLF) regards the actions of the late taxi driver, Jabu Baloyi, as revolutionary. Mr Baloyi is an unsung hero of the …
By Andile Mngxitama Steve Biko was assassinated on the 12 September 1977. For a whole month I will share a qoutation from Biko and explain its meaning. I shall also deal with some popular distortions. These explanations will be short. We must teach Biko’s ideas diligently to ensure there’s no misunderstanding or misrepresentation. If we …
