WATCH: Life of Biko celebrated in series of festivities 40 years after death
Today marks 40 years since Black Consciousness leader and liberation struggle hero Steve Bantu Biko died at the hands of apartheid security forces in detention in 1977.
A number of activities are planned by both the government and the Steve Biko Foundation to commemorate this sad episode in the history of the South Africa’s fight for freedom.
This morning in Pretoria, President Jacob Zuma will visit Kgosi Mampuru Correctional Centre (formerly Pretoria Central Prison) to lay a wreath at the prison cell in which Biko died from injuries after he was beaten by security police in the Sanlam building in Port Elizabeth.
The then security police commander, Colonel Gideon Niewhoudt, told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission he helped rugby tackle Biko and smash his head into a wall.
Biko died from a massive brain haemorrhage. Amnesty for Niewhoudt was denied.
Various activities are planned by his foundation in his hometown of Ginsberg outside King William’s Town where a multimillion-rand Steve Biko Centre is located.
The centre’s spokeswoman, Bokang Pooe, said today’s events would begin with a wreath-laying ceremony and prayer session by various religious groups at his grave in the Steve Biko Garden of Remembrance in King William’s Town.
Pooe said hundreds of learners, provincial politicians and community members would later lead a procession from Biko’s grave to the Biko centre for a dialogue and cultural activities. The theme will be: “Biko, an inspiration beyond the lifetime.” Unisa academic Tendai Sithole will deliver the keynote address.
There will be screenings of documentaries and short films depicting the life and times of Biko.
Pooe said there will be more events on November 14 to remember the start of the inquest into his death in 1977.
On December 18, his birthday in 1946, there will be a golf day, a music festival and other cultural and political festivities. Pooe said today they would explore how Biko’s writings, teachings and ideology continues to inspire South African life.
“His message of black consciousness is still relevant today because it was a philosophy that goes beyond political context.
“It speaks to our challenges evident to this day, where the system has not changed and remains the same but with different faces,” said Pooe.
Biko was arrested near Grahamstown on 18 August, taken to PE and tortured.
On September 11 he was driven naked in the back of a police van to Pretoria, where he died.
Yesterday President Zuma said of Biko: “His ideals of self-reliance are more relevant than ever now as we push a radical socio-economic transformation agenda and the deracialisation of the ownership, control and management of the economy.”
Asanda Mbaxa, a tour guide at the Steve Biko Centre, said:
“I learnt (from Biko’s teachings) that, contrary to popular belief, there was nothing wrong about being black. I also learnt not to sit back, but speak out and challenge the system if needs be.”
Mbaxa said she had learnt about how close Biko was with the late former Daily Dispatch editor Donald Woods.
“We know that Mr Woods used to frequent Biko’s home and that most black people in the area knew that he was not an enemy.
“Even when Woods was banned and wanted to skip the country, we know that it was Bra Steve’s comrades who helped him do so. He was known as the people’s editor,” she said. — asandan@dispatch.co.za