Remembering, commemorating anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko

Internationally, 30 years after his death, Bantu Stephen Biko is memorialized as one of the most important activists of South Africa’s apartheid era, but in his hometown he is remembered as “Big Brother Bantu.”

In Xhosa, one of South Africa’s 11 official languages, “Bantu” means “the people’s person.” Those who knew Biko said it was a name that described him well, according to Nkosinathi Biko, CEO of the Steve Biko Foundation and the eldest of Biko’s four children.

It has been three decades since the police arrested, interrogated and beat Biko with enough force to cause his death September 12, 1977, yet the former medical student has not been forgotten. At home and abroad, there are buildings, statues, seminars, books, movies and songs that pay tribute to Biko.

Since 2000, the Johannesburg-based foundation that bears his name has annually commemorated his life. This year, it is honoring his memory with three months of activities under the name Biko 3030, which focuses on his legacy as a young leader.

“Steve Biko was only 30 when he died 30 years ago,” said Nkosinathi Biko, who was 6 years old when his father was murdered. “I am extremely proud of him. He inspired thousands of people around the world, so it is not surprising that he would also inspire his own children.”

“I look at all that he did in such a short time and realize it is important to not only lead a successful life, but also one of significance.”

In addition to founding the Black Consciousness Movement, the activist helped create the Ginsberg Educational Trust so black students could continue their education; the Zimele Trust Fund to provide assistance for political prisoners and their families; and the Zanempilo Community Health Centre, which still operates today. However, the trusts were among about two dozen organizations banned by the apartheid government shortly after Biko’s death.

“The appropriate way to measure his legacy is not by looking at the institutions he created,” Nkosinathi Biko said. “It was much broader than that. He led a movement.”

That movement impacted a wide range of South African institutions. Today, the majority of the nation’s leaders between the ages of 40 and 60 — whether they are in the fields of education, health, politics, religion or trade unions — were in some way affected by Biko’s activism, including the country’s top leader.

Steve Biko may not have become the medical doctor he set out to be, but he did become a doctor of the mind and soul of South Africa for both blacks and whites.” Nkosinathi Biko

South African President Thabo Mbeki is scheduled to give the Eighth Annual Steve Biko Memorial Lecture at the University of Cape Town. The lecture is the final commemorative event of many that have been hosted by the Steve Biko Foundation since June. It is expected to attract about 3,000 dignitaries, including leaders from throughout South Africa, the African continent and elsewhere.

Since 2004, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation has provided two general purposes grants totaling $210,000 to the Steve Biko Foundation.

Even though Biko was young, his leadership was powerful, said Nkosinathi Biko, who acknowledges that most of what he knows about his father he learned by reviewing media accounts, reading publications, and conducting first-hand interviews with his family, friends and fellow comrades opposed to the apartheid system.

Some of what he has learned was included in a 1997 hour-long documentary that he and a friend made called “Steve Bantu Biko: Beacon of Hope” to commemorate the 20th anniversary of his father’s death.

Ten years later, the public’s response to the Biko 3030 commemorative activities thus far has been “overwhelming,” including a “terrific” turnout for a June youth leadership conference in the Eastern Cape province, where many of Biko’s anti-apartheid activities were carried out while he was under house arrest in the 1970s, Nkosinathi Biko said.

Since the youth conference, there have been art, literature, music and film festivals in provinces throughout the country recognizing the 30th anniversary of Biko’s death.

The 2007 commemoration will culminate with three days of activities in September, including the “Consciousness, Agency & the African Development Agenda” conference in Cape Town, and the Former African Heads of State Roundtable and gala dinner, before concluding with the annual lecture. It will be broadcast live and there will be two delayed broadcasts of the lecture, expected to be heard in 46 African countries.

“The irony is that, as the father of the Black Consciousness Movement, Steve Biko did a lot in terms of redefining white consciousness in South Africa. That was the other side of what he did — help transform the assumption of white superiority in South Africa,” Nkosinathi Biko said.

“Steve Biko may not have become the medical doctor he set out to be, but he did become a doctor of the mind and soul of South Africa for both blacks and whites.”