Steve Biko
Liberation starts in the mind: Black people must first free themselves from the feeling of inferiority that oppression has planted in them.
Placement
Leading figure of the Black Consciousness Movement in apartheid South Africa, killed in police custody: liberation begins with freeing the mind of the oppressed from inferiority.
Key ideas
- Black Consciousness
- Psychological liberation
- Critique of white liberalism
Influence
Influenced by 3
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
influenced by
In “White Racism and Black Consciousness” (1971) Biko framed Black Consciousness with what he called “the Hegelian theory of dialectic materialism”: white racism is the thesis, a solid Black unity the antithesis, and a true humanity without racism the synthesis. S. Biko, “White Racism and Black Consciousness” (1971), in I Write What I Like (1978)
Evidence: AI draft
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel › 1770–1831
Paulo Freire
influenced by
Biko and the South African Students’ Organisation used Freire’s conscientisation in literacy and community projects of the early 1970s to build Black self-reliance. L. Hadfield, Liberation and Development: Black Consciousness Community Programs in South Africa (2016); S. Biko, I Write What I Like (1978); P. Freire, Pedagogia do oprimido (1968)
Evidence: AI draft
Paulo Freire › 1921–1997
Frantz Fanon
influenced by
Biko drew on Fanon’s analysis of colonised consciousness for Black Consciousness, holding that the oppressed must first free their own minds (I Write What I Like, 1978). S. Biko, I Write What I Like (1978); F. Fanon, Peau noire, masques blancs (1952); L. R. Gordon, What Fanon Said (2015)
Evidence: AI draft
Frantz Fanon › 1925–1961
Works
Collected writings, published after his death: Black Consciousness as the self-liberation of the oppressed from a sense of inferiority.
Position
Biko argued that the most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. Apartheid had taught Black people to see themselves as inferior; liberation therefore had to begin with psychological self-liberation, pride and solidarity. “Black” was a political term for all the oppressed, including Indian and Coloured South Africans. He criticised white liberals who claimed to lead the struggle and offered integration on white terms: Black people had to organise themselves. Drawing on Fanon, Black theology and Freire’s literacy methods, Black Consciousness inspired the student generation of the 1976 Soweto uprising. Critics in the non-racial tradition questioned its exclusion of white allies.
Life & context
Stephen Bantu Biko was born in 1946 in King William’s Town in the Eastern Cape. While studying medicine at the University of Natal he broke with the white-led student union and in 1968 co-founded the South African Students’ Organisation. In 1973 the apartheid state banned him and restricted him to his home town. Arrested in August 1977, he was beaten in police custody and died that September.
Further main works
- White Racism and Black Consciousness (1971)
- Black Consciousness and the Quest for a True Humanity (1973)
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