Steve Biko was born on 18 December 1946 just months before the racist National Party, which introduced apartheid in South Africa, came to power. His father died when he was four and his mother worked as a domestic servant for white families in King William's Town in Cape Province. He became involved in politics while studying medicine at Natal University and was one of the founders (and first president) of the all-black South African Students' Organisation (SASO) in 1969. He travelled to different black campuses to spread ideas about establishing black solidarity and to get black students 'accepted on their own terms as an integral part of the South African community'. Many of his basic ideas were similar to those developed in the US Black Power movement, and emphasised pride, self-respect, and the ability to achieve political and social justice on black people's own terms.
His encouragement of black self-reliance and his support for black institutions made him a popular figure, and, in 1972, he gave up his studies to become honorary president of the Black People's Convention (BPC), a coalition of over 70 black groups. SASO had decided to form this body since both the main parties supported by black South Africans - the African National Congress and the Pan-African Congress - had been banned. But the BPC was not trying to compete with the ANC and PAC. 'There will be one movement of revolt against the system of injustice', Biko said. The BPC wanted to unite blacks with the aim of freeing them from 'psychological and physical oppression' and it intended to 'popularise and implement the philosophy of Black Consciousness and black solidarity'. It also believed in trying to create a society which was based on social, judicial and economic equality.
Biko explained Black Consciousness: 'The black man is a defeated being who finds it very difficult to lift himself up by his bootstrings. He is alienated - alienated from himself, from his friends, and from society in general. He is made to live all the time concerned with matters of existence: "What shall I eat tomorrow?" We felt that we must attempt to defeat and break this kind of attitude and to instil once more a sense of human dignity within the black man. So what we did was to design various types of programmes, present these to the black community with an obvious illustration that these are done by black people for the sole purpose of uplifting the black community.'
Biko and his group were put under government bans which severely restricted their movements and their freedom of speech and association. They were frequently imprisoned. When Biko died in prison, the government claimed it was because he had gone on hunger strike. Few believed this and there was outrage across the world. (This was partly because of publicity from a well-known white South African journalist, Donald Woods, who had known Biko well, and had himself gone into exile in Britain.)
It emerged at Biko's inquest that he had been held in a cell for 20 days, naked, deprived of exercise, unable to communicate with anyone, half-starved and beaten. Doctors were amongst those officers who tried to cover up the way he had died. Those who beat him to death have now been named and forced to appear before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Find out more about the people who made a difference on the HomeBeats: Struggles for Racial Justice CDROM.