September 12 marks 45 years since the killing of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko at the hands of the apartheid police.
Biko spearheaded the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) and cofounded the South African Students’ Association and the Black People’s Convention.
He worked with a number of now-prominent black South Africans, including former UCT vice-chancellor and later founder of Agang SA Dr Mamphela Ramphele and former Eastern Cape education head of department Harry Nengwekhulu.
Biko died in 1977 as a result of injuries inflicted on him by apartheid police following his arrest.
He had been arrested several times before and banned by the apartheid police owing to his activism and ideas which many say influenced the 1967 Soweto uprisings.
“For me 1977 is like yesterday,” Ramaphele told the Dispatch.
She worked closely with Biko and gave birth to two of his children: Lerato Biko, who contracted fatal pneumonia when she was two months old, and Hlumelo Biko, who was born in 1978, after his father’s killing.
“Would there have been a different outcome had the Black Consciousness Movement, that he was a co-founder and leader of, been able to continue to operate and to conscientise people about what really matters? What it means to be human and what true freedom should look like, that’s the real question,” said Ramphele.
She believes that the ANC has not fully recognised the contribution of Biko and late PAC president Robert Sobukwe and the ruling party has even gone as far as taking credit for the Soweto uprising.
“If we had continued with the self liberation process that the Black Consciousness Movement introduced in this country, we would be very far. If we had continued on that path, there is no way you could steal from the people who appointed you to be their representatives,” she said.
Speaking about the late Dispatch editor Donald Woods, Ramphele says the story that she barged into his office was untrue. She has been sent by the leaders of the BCM to speak with Woods over his understanding of the movement. Both she and Nengwekhulu say Woods misunderstood what they were trying to do.
She said of Woods: “There was no understanding of the importance of self identification as the key to liberation. The likes of Donald Woods believed in what they called multi-nations, whereas we believed that there was one human race and that human race manifests with diverse characteristics.”
Nengwekhulu said Woods was opposed to the BCM at the beginning.
“He took a lot to change,” said Nengwekhulu, as he reflected on the problems they had with liberals. “The liberals didn’t want to call us [black] because they felt it’s an emotive [term] but we said we are black."
Speaking about Biko, he said he was a very dominant person. “He sacrificed his studies in favour of the struggle,” he said.
“Steve Biko was a laid back person. You would rush to him and say: 'Hey I found this boy who called me a k****r', and he would say 'no sit down, let’s have a drink' and we would start talking. He was very relaxed,” he said.
Speaking to the Dispatch as part of a documentary for the newspaper's 150th birthday, and 45th anniversary of his father’s death, Nkosinathi Biko spoke about the relationship between Woods and Biko.
“The early writings of Donald were bothersome to the leadership of the Black Consciousness Movement but in tradition of the movement, the approach was always going to be ‘so what’s wrong with you, let’s talk about this, what don’t you understand?” said Biko.
He said the engagement resulted in a series of dialogues. Biko recalls one of his father’s articles in Steve Biko's famous book I Write What I Like where he speaks about being tortured by apartheid police.
Woods' first born, Dillon Woods, said he still talks to the Biko family and the first thing his family did when they came back to South Africa was visit Biko's grave. Dillon was only 13 when his father fled the country after being banned by the apartheid state for his role in accusing the police for killing Biko in detention and venerating him as a hero.
He recalls meeting with Biko’s family at the time. Woods said the relationship with Biko changed his father. “It changed him from being what I would call a liberal trying to work within the system, which is like Helen Suzman, to what I would call a radical liberal,” he said.
He said Woods realised that parliamentary action would not change anything. “He realised what Steve was talking about.”
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