Stephen Biko, leader of the Black Consciousness movement in South Africa, died in police custody on Sept 12 1977. Apartheid was based on an ideology of white superiority that relied not only through overt repression but through the colonization of consciousness...
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...training black people to see themselves through white eyes and thus to accept their own helplessness and sense of inferiority. Through Black Consciousness Biko worked to foster a spirit of pride, self-reliance, and resistance among the oppressed. The government termed it an
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Ideology of hatred and racism. Biko was “banned” and called “the most dangerous man in South Africa.” Biko challenged Christianity to overcome its western colonial package and to discover its true meaning for Africa. He called for a Black Theology.
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An inquest into his death showed he had suffered brain damage following a beating. For days he was left naked in his cell, in shackles, unconscious, then transported 750 miles in a Land Rover to a hospital where he died. The court found no government misconduct.
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Biko’s witness was a milestone on the road to freedom that seemed impossibly far at the time of his death. Nevertheless, as he said, “It is better to die for an idea that will live, than to live for an idea that will die.” #BlackLivesMatter
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