I Write What I Like

Introduction

Steve Biko, co-founder of the South African Students’ Organisation (SASO) and leading figure of the Black Consciousness Movement, died in police custody in September 1977. The following year his friend, the Anglican priest Aelred Stubbs, published this collection in London; it was banned in South Africa. It brings together the articles Biko wrote under the pseudonym “Frank Talk” for the SASO newsletter, as well as papers, speeches and his evidence at a political trial in 1976. Biko argues that Black people must free themselves from psychological dependence and define themselves, without white liberals as their spokespeople; “Black” includes all who are oppressed by apartheid. Stubbs added a personal memoir of Biko.

Connections

Builds on

• Black Skin, White Masks1952 · Frantz Fanon