/ 14 September 2012

Steve Biko trends on Twitter

South Africans shared their thoughts about Steve Biko on Twitter.
South Africans shared their thoughts about Steve Biko on Twitter.

@amellarieux The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed – Steve Biko

@PatrickStrud 35 years today since the assassination of Steve Biko, a hero of the anti-apartheid movement. RIP Steve, your murder will never be forgotten

@PamelaScully RIP Steve Biko, who galvanised opposition to apartheid and provided an ethical and incisive critique to racism

@Steve_Hofmeyr On this day in 1977 Steve Biko sustained fatal injuries. I have never been proud of this moment as Afrikaner & South African

@khaya_dlanga Long live the spirit of Steve Biko long live!

@lelaslounge Peace to the ancestor Steve Biko who was martyred on this day in South Africa in 1977

@thatZoechic The kids are having Spring Day fun. The grown-ups are having a Steve Biko day. I'm just listening to some Coldplay

@Avish_karr Dear Steve Biko, we have failed you

@GoodHair99 It seems like leaders of Steve Biko's calibre are in short supply. Just look at the public hospitals to see what kind of leadership we have

@jdnATL 12 Sep 77: Steve Biko died in police custody in Pretoria, South Africa. Official cause: hunger strike. (Real cause: major head injury)

@joethegr8one Today in #BlackHistory 1977, leader of the Black Consciousness Movement, Steve Biko, was killed by South African police. God bless his soul …

@DebbieSchafer How ironic that @helenzille exposed Steve Biko's death and 35 years later is refused permission to speak at his memorial lecture

@Afrotonomy Today in 1977, Steve Biko was announced dead because of a brain haemorrhage. A result of being assaulted by apartheid police. Rest In Power


Envisaging a 'completely nonracial society'

In a rare interview with a German TV station shortly before he was killed by security branch policemen 35 years ago, Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko said: "We see a completely non­racial society. We don't believe, for instance, in the so-called guarantees for minority rights … because guaranteeing minority rights implies the revolution of portions of the community on a race basis.

"We believe that in our country there shall be no minority and there shall be no majority, there shall just be people. And those people will have the same status before the law and they will have the same political rights before the law.

"So, in a sense it will be a completely nonracial, egalitarian society. We believe it is the duty of the vanguard political movement, which brings about change, to educate people's outlooks.

"In the same way that blacks have never lived in a socialist economic system, they have got to learn to live in one.

"In the same way that they have always lived in a racially segregated society, they have got to learn to live in a nonracial society.

"We have many things to learn and all these have to be brought to the people and explained to them by the vanguard movement, which is leading the revolution."