Steve Biko and Black Consciousness

Steve Biko was an anti-apartheid activist who spearheaded the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa. In 1968, Biko co-founded the South African Students' Organization, an all-black student organization focusing on the resistance of apartheid, and subsequently spearheaded the newly started Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa. Biko became SASO's president in 1969. In August 1977, he was arrested and held in Port Elizabeth, located at the southern tip of South Africa. The following month, on September 11, Biko was found naked and shackled several miles away, in Pretoria, South Africa. He died the following day, on September 12, 1977, from a brain hemorrhage—later determined to be the result of injuries he had sustained while in police custody. The news of Biko's death caused national outrage and protests, and he became regarded as an international anti-apartheid icon in South Africa. Lebo Mashile – Poet and ArtistProf Ramathate Dolamo Emeritus professor: Discipline of Theological Ethics UNISA