The body of Steve Biko in a prison in King Williamstown, South Africa. Biko leader of the Black Consciousness Movement, was arrested on August 1977, and died soon afterwards. In 1997 five former members of the South African security forces admitted to killing Biko who died a year after the Soweto riots which rocked apartheid South Africa.
Steve Biko: Martyr of the Anti-Apartheid Movement
On September 11th, 1977 South African police were transporting Stephen Biko, the leader of the black consciousness movement in South Africa more than 700 miles to Pretoria. He was lying naked and chained on the floor of the police van the entire journey after being beaten unconscious.
Early in the morning of September 12 he died of brain damage on the floor of his prison cell.
Widely considered one of the great leaders of the struggle against apartheid, Steve Biko is credited with developing Black Consciousness - the militant ideological and psychological tools which were crucial in the fight against apartheid.
For years, the United States government backed the apartheid regime in South Africa, designating opposition groups such Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress as terrorist organizations.
Steve Biko was arrested in Port Elizabeth in August 1977 by the South African police force. He was detained for three weeks without trial, and was kept naked and shackled in his cell.
In the early morning hours of September 12, Biko died from multiple injuries including brain damage in a Pretoria prison cell. He was 30 years old. The medical treatment of Biko was subsequently described by a Supreme Court judge as " lacking any element of compassion, care or humanity".
News of his death sparked outrage and protest around the world and the South African government was forced to order an inquest. After testifying, the police and doctors involved were exonerated. The official explanation was that Biko had died of a self-imposed hunger-strike.
In his death Biko became a symbol of the martyrdom of black nationalists whose struggle focused critical world attention on South Africa.
For South African's everywhere, Biko week will serve as a symbol of black resistance to the oppressive Apartheid regime.
