Stephen Biko
| Steve Biko | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Bantu Stephen Biko 18 December 1946 Ginsberg, South Africa |
| Died | 12 September 1977 (aged 30) Pretoria, South Africa |
| Occupation | Anti-apartheid activist |
| Organization |
South African Students' Organisation; Black People's Convention |
| Spouse(s) | Ntsiki Mashalaba |
| Partner(s) | Mamphela Ramphele |
| Children | Nkosinathi Biko; Lerato Biko; Samora Biko; Motlatsi Biko; Hlumelo Biko |
Bantu Stephen Biko (18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977) was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he was at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign known as the Black Consciousness Movement during the late 1960s and 1970s. His ideas were articulated in a series of articles published under the pseudonym Frank Talk.
Raised in a poor Xhosa family, Biko grew up in Ginsberg township in the Eastern Cape. In 1966, he began studying medicine at the University of Natal, where he joined the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS). Strongly opposed to the apartheid system of racial segregation and white-minority rule in South Africa, Biko was frustrated that the anti-apartheid movement, including NUSAS, was dominated by white liberals, rather than by the blacks who were most affected by apartheid. He developed the view that to avoid white domination, black people had to organise independently, and to this end he became a leading figure in the creation of the South African Students' Organisation (SASO) in 1968. Membership was open only to "blacks", a term that Biko used in reference not just to Bantu-speaking Africans but also to Coloureds and Indians. Although careful to keep his movement independent of white liberals, he was friends with several and opposed anti-white racism. Influenced by Frantz Fanon and the African-American Black Power movement, Biko and his compatriots developed the idea of Black Consciousness, which became SASO's official ideology.
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