To celebrate what would have been Steve Bantu Biko’s 69th birthday, the foundation named after him is hosting a suite of activities today, including stage plays and films.The struggle icon and former Black Consciousness Movement leader’s day-long birthday celebrations at the Steve Biko Foundation Centre in Ginsberg near King William’s Town will coincide with a graduation ceremony for the foundation’s performing arts group Abelusi.
The ceremony will see 20 Abelusi trainees who joined the group in January being capped. This to celebration the completion of their unaccredited one-year training programme in various art forms.
According to the foundation’s arts and culture director Lulama Masimini, it will be the first time the foundation celebrates Biko’s birthday “on a full scale and in such a fashion”.
Masimini said the foundation had always concentrated on commemorating September 12, the day Biko died at the hands of apartheid police in 1977.
“But going forward, that will change. We have ignored giving thanks and celebrating the day this icon came into the world, the day this man, with such great ideas and love for his people, was born.
“We then decided that in addition to commemorating the month that he was brutally killed, specifically the day in September when he died, we also have to celebrate the day this great soul came into being.”
Masimini said it would be symbolic and inspirational for the Abelusi trainees to graduate on the same day Biko was born. “Even though our Abelusi training programme is yet to be fully accredited, we use it as a platform for these very talented youngsters to get into bigger things.
“We have prepared them to be ready to get in into art and drama schools at top universities. We have also groomed them to be ready for the gruelling professional art world,” said Masimini.
The day’s events will start at noon with a screening of the Biko documentary films Beacon of Hope and Biko, The Spirit Lives. Later in the day there will be story-telling sessions and a visual art exhibition.
Prior to their graduation and prize-giving, the Abelusi trainees will give one last performance – of a play, titled BikoToMe. An open mic session will also take place.
At the time of Biko’s death, police claimed it was the result of an extended hunger strike. However an autopsy revealed multiple bruises and abrasions and that he succumbed to a brain haemorrhage from injuries to the head.
Before his death, Biko had formed a number of grassroots organisations based on the notion of self-reliance.
He was instrumental in establishing the Zanempilo Clinic, the Zimele Trust Fund, which helped support former political prisoners and their families, the Njwaxa Leatherworks Project and the Ginsberg Education Fund. — asandan@dispatch.co.za
Ginsberg celebrates finest son
The struggle icon and former Black Consciousness Movement leader’s day-long birthday celebrations at the Steve Biko Foundation Centre in Ginsberg near King William’s Town will coincide with a graduation ceremony for the foundation’s performing arts group Abelusi.
The ceremony will see 20 Abelusi trainees who joined the group in January being capped. This to celebration the completion of their unaccredited one-year training programme in various art forms.
According to the foundation’s arts and culture director Lulama Masimini, it will be the first time the foundation celebrates Biko’s birthday “on a full scale and in such a fashion”.
Masimini said the foundation had always concentrated on commemorating September 12, the day Biko died at the hands of apartheid police in 1977.
“But going forward, that will change. We have ignored giving thanks and celebrating the day this icon came into the world, the day this man, with such great ideas and love for his people, was born.
“We then decided that in addition to commemorating the month that he was brutally killed, specifically the day in September when he died, we also have to celebrate the day this great soul came into being.”
Masimini said it would be symbolic and inspirational for the Abelusi trainees to graduate on the same day Biko was born. “Even though our Abelusi training programme is yet to be fully accredited, we use it as a platform for these very talented youngsters to get into bigger things.
“We have prepared them to be ready to get in into art and drama schools at top universities. We have also groomed them to be ready for the gruelling professional art world,” said Masimini.
The day’s events will start at noon with a screening of the Biko documentary films Beacon of Hope and Biko, The Spirit Lives. Later in the day there will be story-telling sessions and a visual art exhibition.
Prior to their graduation and prize-giving, the Abelusi trainees will give one last performance – of a play, titled BikoToMe. An open mic session will also take place.
At the time of Biko’s death, police claimed it was the result of an extended hunger strike. However an autopsy revealed multiple bruises and abrasions and that he succumbed to a brain haemorrhage from injuries to the head.
Before his death, Biko had formed a number of grassroots organisations based on the notion of self-reliance.
He was instrumental in establishing the Zanempilo Clinic, the Zimele Trust Fund, which helped support former political prisoners and their families, the Njwaxa Leatherworks Project and the Ginsberg Education Fund. — asandan@dispatch.co.za
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