It is now 39 years since Steve Biko died. This means he has been dead for longer than he lived – all of 31 years!
Like Jesus Christ, Biko died in his early 30s as he was said to be entering the prime of his youthful life.
Many other parallels can be drawn between the lives of Christ and Biko.
Jesus referred to himself as “the son of man”. Biko was referred to as “the son of man” by his close disciples and loyal followers.
Another obvious comparison is not only did both suffer a violent death at the hands of the state, but their premature deaths marked a turning point in the liberation of man from the forces of evil and man-made injustice respectively.
In fact, it would not be entirely incorrect to name Biko the “Jesus Christ of the Liberation Struggle”.
He was also the only one in the three ideological camps of the liberation struggle – ANC non-racialism, Pan Africanism and Black Consciousness – to be literally crucified on the cross of the struggle. During his interrogation and brutal torture his captors hung him from iron rails crucifix style – just like Christ.
A further comparison between the death of Christ and Biko throws up more fascinating yet controversial insights.
Unlike Christ, Biko refused to turn the other cheek and was willing to fight his enemies to the death. This is what sped up his death.
However, both Christ and Biko were mocked and humiliated before they were killed. Christ was made to carry his own cross, whipped in public and jeered by his enemies.
Biko was handcuffed to a chair, stripped naked and beaten up, punched and kicked before he was bundled into the back of a van for a long-distance drive.
Christ was sold for 30 pieces of silver by one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot. There is a belief in some circles that Biko was sold out by one of his own comrades who informed the security branch about his travel arrangements. The car in which Biko was travelling back home from a clandestine meeting in Cape Town was pulled over on a deserted road.
Like Christ, Biko told those who cared to listen that his involvement in the struggle could result in death.
Christ made this revelation during the last supper when he told his disciples that one of them would betray him.
Unlike Christ, Biko wrote his own gospel, “I write what I like” while Christ depended on his disciples – John, Mark, Luke and Matthew – to capture what he had to teach the world, especially his followers.
Indeed, there is a great resemblance between the lives of Christ and Biko who lived and died almost 2000 years apart.
The death of Biko was no ordinary passing on of a political activist. Instead, it was regarded as the death of a messiah who had been appointed by God to lead his African people out of mental slavery, human degradation and political oppression.
Biko was widely regarded as the messianic substitute for African political leadership that was exiled with Oliver Tambo, imprisoned with Nelson Mandela and banished with Robert Sobukwe.
Both deaths were extremely violent, painful and brutal.
In Biko’s case he was subjected to heavy physical beating, including having his head rammed against iron railings. The security agents tortured him for so long they had to change shifts in their effort to break his resilient spirit. He died naked, unconscious, bleeding and abandoned in the back of a police van being driven for over 1000km from Port Elizabeth to Pretoria.
Of course, Jesus was subjected to immense agony and pain, too. But he died with the full awareness and hope that his Father would take care of everything by raising him from the dead.
One can say Biko, too, was assured of his own resurrection in the sense that the struggle had reached a point of no return and perhaps a thought that his memory would linger in the consciousness of his people who would always be inspired by the manner in which he lived his life and faced death.
The comparison of Christ’s death to that of Biko’s should not be considered blasphemy. It is part of an effort to allow over-Christianised Africans in this era of the African Renaissance to explore the relationship between God and a great calibre of African leadership.
It may prove to be a faith-shaking exercise but it is a necessary exercise for us in order to understand the true meaning of personal sacrifice and the significance of political conviction in a highly unjust society.
The issue of where God or his sons stand in one of the most unequal societies on earth becomes very relevant when more and more African people are losing faith in the role of the church.
Of course, one is not declaring disrespect for self-appointed representatives of God in conventional religious institutions and other charismatic churches. But through a comparison of the deaths of Christ and Biko, we have a chance to turn our attention to the values of both religious and political leadership when it comes to doing God’s will on earth.
In today’s world, what are leaders willing to give up for the economic liberation of their people?
The agony, pain, humiliation and self-sacrifice of both Christ and Biko are perhaps the criterion of what living up to God’s will and word means for people who want to serve his people.
What we can observe through careful scrutiny is that like Christ, Biko was rightly called the “son of man” because of his willingness to pay the ultimate sacrifice for the total liberation of his people.
He was not co-opted through material gain or self-advancement.
Much as the jury is still out on whether their deaths were in vain or not, few can dispute the fact that both of these young lives inspired hope and optimism in the minds and heart of their followers.
For those with eyes to see, there are very few leaders – both living and dead – who can do better than Christ and Biko in teaching with their lives and deaths, that leadership is self-sacrifice!
They are supreme examples of dying for your convictions.
After 39 years, perhaps it is time we turned back to the life, times and death of Steve Bantu Biko to find an example of leadership founded on personal conviction and self-sacrifice.
Sandile Memela is a journalist, writer, cultural critic and civil servant. He writes in his personal capacity
Modern-day liberator’s lesson on self-sacrifice
Like Jesus Christ, Biko died in his early 30s as he was said to be entering the prime of his youthful life.
Many other parallels can be drawn between the lives of Christ and Biko.
Jesus referred to himself as “the son of man”. Biko was referred to as “the son of man” by his close disciples and loyal followers.
Another obvious comparison is not only did both suffer a violent death at the hands of the state, but their premature deaths marked a turning point in the liberation of man from the forces of evil and man-made injustice respectively.
In fact, it would not be entirely incorrect to name Biko the “Jesus Christ of the Liberation Struggle”.
He was also the only one in the three ideological camps of the liberation struggle – ANC non-racialism, Pan Africanism and Black Consciousness – to be literally crucified on the cross of the struggle. During his interrogation and brutal torture his captors hung him from iron rails crucifix style – just like Christ.
A further comparison between the death of Christ and Biko throws up more fascinating yet controversial insights.
Unlike Christ, Biko refused to turn the other cheek and was willing to fight his enemies to the death. This is what sped up his death.
However, both Christ and Biko were mocked and humiliated before they were killed. Christ was made to carry his own cross, whipped in public and jeered by his enemies.
Biko was handcuffed to a chair, stripped naked and beaten up, punched and kicked before he was bundled into the back of a van for a long-distance drive.
Christ was sold for 30 pieces of silver by one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot. There is a belief in some circles that Biko was sold out by one of his own comrades who informed the security branch about his travel arrangements. The car in which Biko was travelling back home from a clandestine meeting in Cape Town was pulled over on a deserted road.
Like Christ, Biko told those who cared to listen that his involvement in the struggle could result in death.
Christ made this revelation during the last supper when he told his disciples that one of them would betray him.
Unlike Christ, Biko wrote his own gospel, “I write what I like” while Christ depended on his disciples – John, Mark, Luke and Matthew – to capture what he had to teach the world, especially his followers.
Indeed, there is a great resemblance between the lives of Christ and Biko who lived and died almost 2000 years apart.
The death of Biko was no ordinary passing on of a political activist. Instead, it was regarded as the death of a messiah who had been appointed by God to lead his African people out of mental slavery, human degradation and political oppression.
Biko was widely regarded as the messianic substitute for African political leadership that was exiled with Oliver Tambo, imprisoned with Nelson Mandela and banished with Robert Sobukwe.
Both deaths were extremely violent, painful and brutal.
In Biko’s case he was subjected to heavy physical beating, including having his head rammed against iron railings. The security agents tortured him for so long they had to change shifts in their effort to break his resilient spirit. He died naked, unconscious, bleeding and abandoned in the back of a police van being driven for over 1000km from Port Elizabeth to Pretoria.
Of course, Jesus was subjected to immense agony and pain, too. But he died with the full awareness and hope that his Father would take care of everything by raising him from the dead.
One can say Biko, too, was assured of his own resurrection in the sense that the struggle had reached a point of no return and perhaps a thought that his memory would linger in the consciousness of his people who would always be inspired by the manner in which he lived his life and faced death.
The comparison of Christ’s death to that of Biko’s should not be considered blasphemy. It is part of an effort to allow over-Christianised Africans in this era of the African Renaissance to explore the relationship between God and a great calibre of African leadership.
It may prove to be a faith-shaking exercise but it is a necessary exercise for us in order to understand the true meaning of personal sacrifice and the significance of political conviction in a highly unjust society.
The issue of where God or his sons stand in one of the most unequal societies on earth becomes very relevant when more and more African people are losing faith in the role of the church.
Of course, one is not declaring disrespect for self-appointed representatives of God in conventional religious institutions and other charismatic churches. But through a comparison of the deaths of Christ and Biko, we have a chance to turn our attention to the values of both religious and political leadership when it comes to doing God’s will on earth.
In today’s world, what are leaders willing to give up for the economic liberation of their people?
The agony, pain, humiliation and self-sacrifice of both Christ and Biko are perhaps the criterion of what living up to God’s will and word means for people who want to serve his people.
What we can observe through careful scrutiny is that like Christ, Biko was rightly called the “son of man” because of his willingness to pay the ultimate sacrifice for the total liberation of his people.
He was not co-opted through material gain or self-advancement.
Much as the jury is still out on whether their deaths were in vain or not, few can dispute the fact that both of these young lives inspired hope and optimism in the minds and heart of their followers.
For those with eyes to see, there are very few leaders – both living and dead – who can do better than Christ and Biko in teaching with their lives and deaths, that leadership is self-sacrifice!
They are supreme examples of dying for your convictions.
After 39 years, perhaps it is time we turned back to the life, times and death of Steve Bantu Biko to find an example of leadership founded on personal conviction and self-sacrifice.
Sandile Memela is a journalist, writer, cultural critic and civil servant. He writes in his personal capacity
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