Black is beautiful.

The month of September is significant not only because we welcome spring and new beginnings but also because we celebrate the life and legacy of one of South Africa's fallen heroes, Steve Biko. It is important to keep their spirits alive, I'm playing my part with this mini tribute.


Stephen Bantu Biko born 18 December 1946 was an 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. 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".



 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. He was nearly dead owing to the previous injuries. 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, which many saw as strong evidence that he had been brutally clubbed by his captors.

He died at the age of 30. The real cause of his death? Emancipation of mental slavery. His message was simple, it was "think for yourselves as a people".

 



Being black is not a matter of pigmentation - being black is a reflection of a mental attitude.

  Merely by describing yourself as black you have started on a road towards emancipation, you have committed yourself to fight against all forces that seek to use your blackness as a stamp that marks you out as a subservient being