Stephen Biko (18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977)[1]
was a noted anti-apartheid activist in South
Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. A student leader, he later founded the Black Consciousness Movement which
would empower and mobilize much of the urban black population. Since his death
in police custody, he has been called a martyr of the
anti-apartheid movement.[4] While
living, his writings and activism attempted to empower black people, and he was
famous for his slogan "black is beautiful", which he described as
meaning: "man, you are okay as you are, begin to look upon yourself as a
human being".[5]
Despite friction between the African National Congress and Biko
throughout the 1970s[Need quotation to verify] the ANC has included Biko
in the pantheon of struggle heroes, going as far as using his image for
campaign posters in South Africa's first non-racial elections in 1994.[6]
Early
life
Biko was born in King William's Town, in the Eastern
Cape province of South Africa. He studied to be a doctor at the University of Natal Medical School. Biko was a Xhosa.
In addition to Xhosa, he spoke fluent English
and fairly fluent Afrikaans.
He was initially involved with the
multiracial National Union of South
African Students, but after he became convinced that Black, Indian and Coloured
students needed an organization of their own, he helped found the South African Students'
Organisation (SASO), whose agenda included political self-reliance and the
unification of university students in a "black consciousness."[7] In
1968 Biko was elected its first president. SASO evolved into the influential Black Consciousness Movement (BCM).
Biko was also involved with the World Student Christian Federation.
Biko married Ntsiki Mashalaba in
1970.[8]
They had two children together: Nkosinathi, born in 1971, and Samora. He also had
two children with Dr Mamphela Ramphele (a prominent activist within
the BCM): a daughter, Lerato, born in 1974, who died of pneumonia when she was
only two months old, and a son, Hlumelo,
who was born in 1978, after Biko's death.[2]
Biko also had a daughter with Lorraine Tabane, named Motlatsi, born in May
1977.[citation needed]
In 1972, Biko was expelled from the
University of Natal because of his political activities[7]
and he became honorary president of the Black People's Convention. He was banned
by the apartheid regime in February 1973,[9] meaning
that he was not allowed to speak to more than one person at a time nor to speak
in public, was restricted to the King William's Town magisterial district, and
could not write publicly or speak with the media.[7] It
was also forbidden to quote anything he said, including speeches or simple
conversations.
When Biko was banned, his movement
within the country was restricted to the Eastern Cape, where he was born. After
returning there, he formed a number of grassroots organizations based on the
notion of self-reliance: Zanempilo, the Zimele Trust Fund (which helped support
former political prisoners and their families), Njwaxa Leather-Works Project
and the Ginsberg Education Fund.
In spite of the repression of the apartheid
government, Biko and the BCM played a significant role in organising the
protests which culminated in the Soweto
Uprising of 16 June 1976. In the aftermath of the uprising, which was
crushed by heavily armed police shooting school children protesting, the
authorities began to target Biko further.
Death
and aftermath
The Rand
Daily Mail story, authored by Zille, that exposed the cover-up of
anti-apartheid activist Biko's death in police custody.
On the 18th of August, 1977, Biko
was arrested at a police roadblock under the Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967 and
interrogated by officers of the Port
Elizabeth security police including Harold
Snyman and Gideon Nieuwoudt. This
interrogation took place in the Police Room 619. The interrogation lasted
twenty-two hours and included torture and beatings resulting in a coma.[7] He
suffered a major head injury while in police custody, and was chained to a
window grille for a day.
On 11 September 1977, police loaded
him in the back of a Land Rover, naked and restrained in manacles, and began
the 1100 km drive to Pretoria to take him to a prison with hospital facilities.
However, he was nearly dead owing to the previous injuries.[10] He
died shortly after arrival at the Pretoria prison, on 12 September. The police
claimed his death was the result of an extended hunger
strike, but an autopsy revealed multiple bruises and abrasions and that he
ultimately succumbed to a brain hemorrhage from the massive injuries to the
head,[7]
which many saw as strong evidence that he had been brutally clubbed by his
captors. Then journalist and now political leader, Helen Zille,
along with Donald Woods, another journalist, editor and close
friend of Biko's, exposed the truth behind Biko's death.[11]
Because of his high profile, news of
Biko's death spread quickly, opening many eyes around the world to the
brutality of the apartheid regime. His funeral was attended by over 10,000 people,
including numerous ambassadors and other diplomats from the United
States and Western Europe. The liberal white South African journalist Donald
Woods, a personal friend of Biko, photographed his injuries in the morgue.
Woods was later forced to flee South Africa for England. Donald Woods later
campaigned against apartheid and further publicised Biko's life and death,
writing many newspaper articles and authoring the book, Biko.[12]
Speaking at a National Party conference following the news of Biko's death
then-minister of police, Jimmy Kruger said, "I am not glad and I am not
sorry about Mr. Biko. It leaves me cold (Dit laat my koud). I can say nothing
to you ... Any person who dies ... I shall also be sorry if I
die."
The following year, on 2 February
1978, the Attorney General of the Eastern
Cape stated that he would not prosecute any police officers
involved in the arrest and detention of Biko. During the trial, it was claimed
that Biko's head injuries were the result of a self-inflicted suicide attempt,
not those of any beatings.
The judge ultimately ruled that a
murder charge could not be supported partly because there were no witnesses to
the killing. Charges of culpable homicide and assault were also considered, but
because the killing occurred in 1977, the time limit for prosecution had
expired.[13]
On 7 October 2003 the South African Justice Ministry officials announced that
the five policemen accused of killing Biko would not be prosecuted, because
there was insufficient evidence, and because the time limit for prosecution had
elapsed.
The Truth and
Reconciliation Commission, which was created following the end of minority
rule and the apartheid system, reported in 1997 that five former members of the
South African security forces who had admitted to killing Biko were applying
for amnesty.
Their application was rejected.
Stephen Biko authored a book titled:
I Write What I Like.
Influences
and formation of ideology
Like Frantz
Fanon, Biko originally studied medicine, and, like Fanon, Biko developed an
intense concern for the development of black consciousness as a solution to the
existential struggles which shape existence, both as a human and as an African
(see Négritude).
Biko can thus be seen as a follower of Fanon and Aimé
Césaire, in contrast to more multi-racialist ANC leaders such as Nelson
Mandela after his imprisonment at Robben
Island, and Albert Luthuli who were first disciples of Gandhi.[14][15][16][17]
Biko saw the struggle to restore
African consciousness as having two stages, "Psychological
liberation" and "Physical liberation". The nonviolent
influence of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. upon Biko is then
suspect, as Biko knew that for his struggle to give rise to physical
liberation, it was necessary that it exist within the political realities of
the apartheid regime, and Biko's nonviolence may be seen more as a tactic than
a personal conviction.[18]
Biko's
relevance in the present
In the present post-Apartheid South
Africa, Biko is now revered across the political spectrum despite obvious
ideological differences. Many of these people see Biko's philosophy as
irrelevant after 1994. However, in 2004, he was voted 13th in the SABC3's Great South Africans.
However, many present-day social
movements, activists, and academics continue to stress the relevance of Biko's
black consciousness. This includes a strong critique of voting by academic
Andile Mngxitama who has said that if Biko were alive today, he would not be
supporting any political party, would not even vote, but would be marching with
the social movements against government.[19] [20] [21]
Tributes
Apart from Donald Woods' book called
Biko, his name has been honoured at several universities. Locally, the
main Student Union buildings of the University of Cape Town are named in his
honour and each year a commemorative Steve Biko lecture, open to all students,
is delivered on the anniversary of his death. Internationally, the University of Manchester's student union, the Steve Biko Building, on
the Oxford road campus, is named in his honour. Ruskin College, Oxford has a Biko House
student accommodation. The bar at the University of Bradford was named after Biko
until its closure in 2005. Numerous other venues in Students Unions around the
United Kingdom also bear his name. The Santa Barbara Student Housing
Cooperative has a house named after Steve Biko, themed to provide a safe,
respectful space for people of colour. A street in Hounslow, West
London, is named "Steve Biko Way". At the University of California,
Santa Cruz, there is a section of dormitories named "Biko House"
located in the Oakes College Multicultural Theme Housing. The Steve Biko
Institute was founded in Salvador, Brazil to support the education and pride of
Black Brazilians.[22] The
Pretoria Academic Hospital was renamed the Steve Biko Academic Hospital[23] in
2008. Durban University of Technology has
acknowledged Steve Biko’s contribution to South African Society by naming its
largest campus after him. A bronze bust of Steve Biko was unveiled in Freedom
Square on this campus as a tribute to him. Peter
Gabriel and the Hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest each named a song after
him in his honour.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Biko
(Updated 14 September 2011:5:12)
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar