“I Write What I Like” by Steve Biko (South Africa)

One of Nicola’s 100 Best Books for Inspiration in the 21^st century!

Synopsis

On 12th September 1977, Steve Biko was murdered in his prison cell. He was only 31, but his vision and charisma – captured in this collection of his work – had already transformed the agenda of South African politics. This book covers the basic philosophy of black consciousness, Bantustans, African culture, the institutional church and Western involvement in apartheid.

Extract

Black consciousness is an attitude of mind and a way of life, the most positive call to emanate from the black world for a long time.  Its essence is the realisation by the black man of the need to rally together with his brothers around the cause of their oppression – the blackness of their skin – and to operate as a group to rid themselves of the shackles that bind them to perpetual servitude.  It is based on a self-examination which has ultimately led them to believe that by seeking to run away from themselves and emulate the white man, they are insulting the intelligence of whoever created them black.   The philosophy of Black Consciousness therefore expresses group pride and the determination of the black to rise and attain the envisaged self.  Freedom is the ability to define oneself with one’s possibilities held back not by the power of other people over one but only by one’s relationship to God and to natural surroundings.  On his own, therefore, the black man wishes to explore his surroundings and test his possibilities – in other words to make his freedom real by whatever means he deems fit.  At the heart of this kind of thinking is the realisation by blacks that the most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.  If one is free at heart, no man-made chains can bind one to servitude, but if one’s mind is so manipulated and controlled by the oppressor as to make the oppressed believe that he is a liability to the white man, then there will be nothing the oppressed can do to scare his powerful masters.  Hence thinking along lines of Black Consciousness makes the black man see himself as a being complete in himself.  It makes him less dependent and more free to express his manhood.  At the end of it all he cannot tolerate attempts by anybody to dwarf the significance of his manhood.

© N.M. Biko 1978