Day 25 of the 28 Days of Black Liberation 2024 series
“History from time to time brings to the fore the kind of leaders who seize the moment, who cohere the wishes and aspirations of the oppressed. Such was Steve Biko, a fitting product of his time; a proud representative of the re-awakening of a people.” In 2004 Nelson Mandela used these words to capture the immediate and lasting mark that Steve Biko left on Black Liberation movements both in his home of South Africa and across the globe.
Born December 18th, 1946, in Tarkastad, South Africa, Bantu Stephen Biko was one of the leading voices in the anti-Apartheid struggle in South Africa during the 1960s & 70s as well as the core figure in the growing Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) of that era. Biko began organizing as a medical student and was one of the founders of the South African Student Organisation (SASO) which, along with the later established Black People’s Convention (BPC), was one of the central organizations of the BCM. Both arose to fill the gap left by the banning of the African National Congress and the Pan-African Congress. Biko and the BCM organized for a unified front among Black South Africans—meaning all non-white South African fighting white supremacy—and argued that Black people must be the leaders of their own liberation struggle and reject co-optation by white liberals. This call for an active and principled unity is embodied in Biko’s definition of Black Consciousness: it is “in essence the realization by the black man of the need to rally together…and to operate as a group in order to rid themselves of the shackles that bind them to perpetual servitude.”
Through his later work within the BPC, Biko helped to establish Black-controlled clinics, childcare services, and other community programs throughout South Africa. He published numerous articles under the pseudonym “Frank Talk” as well. Throughout his political writings, Biko sought to empower Black people to assert their humanity on their own terms and reject all attempts of white racism to devalue Black existence. He continued to struggle for Black liberation and an end to Apartheid up until his murder by police while in custody in 1977.
Learn more
I Write What I Like: Selected Writings
In the United States, the Black liberation struggle is the vanguard of the revolutionary class struggle. Black resistance to white supremacy has been the catalyst for nearly all critical social ruptures throughout american history. White workers choosing an alliance with the bosses instead of siding with the rest of the working class is the primary roadblock to revolutionary anti-capitalism in the US.
The GDC celebrates the Black liberation struggle and draws inspiration and lessons from its proud history in our struggle for the new world we are fighting for. In February we celebrate Black revolutionary culture, political prisoners, international figures and struggles, and moments in direct action that guide us in our continued, collective fight for liberation!