Why Black Pride needs Revival

With all respect, I don't believe The International Herald Tribune, when headlining Associated Press reporter Celean Jacobson's report about a fashion trend in South Africa, was referencing a physical resurrection, nor an exhuming of the remains of the Black Consciousness leader by its choice of the word "revive". It is more likely what was meant is a "fashion trend" - which features the image of Steve Biko as its theme - would revive the ideas of the "black pride leader". Steve Biko died after being tortured by the South African Apartheid government, on September 12th 1977.

Now wait just a moment! "Didn't South Africa achieve independence more than a decade ago?" you ask. And "Isn't South Africa largely a black country?" Now herein lies the crux of the revival, see. What need do we have for reviving the ideas of a nation's greatest leader, or indeed "a nation's pride", if the said nation is already liberated?

A search on the day marking thirty years since this great African Lion was taken in its infancy, from its African children, revealed several reports in the international press, all relating to a commercialization of the image and memory of Steve Biko. On closer inspection, there was no dark (or should we say, "white") hand guiding this cheap commercial travesty; no puppet strings attached to the hands of mysterious global masters misguiding Africa's sons and daughters; only a foundation established by the comrade's friends and family, the African sons and daughters themselves, directing this macabre revival. One is not in need of enemies, when blessed with such comrades as these. A sign in fact, that the ideas of Biko never achieved maturity can be seen in such insane notions as these fashion trends. Of course, there is no shortage of "body pierced, metro-sexual black journalists" in Johannesburg who would argue that the wearing of such T-shirts as these, is a political statement; or that the printed T-shirt has long been a political tool, in the hands of the oppressed. Granted, such statements may be true, but when so many platforms are available inside South Africa today, is this ideology being promoted nearly as aggressively among the South African population itself? It would seem that more is being done abroad than domestically in this regard. The SBF, headed by one of Steve Biko's son's, does some community work as it attempts to keep the ideology alive, yet the political representation of the parties which embraced Black Consciousness, remains shameful. The new dispensation in South Africa having failed dismally, to reverse one iota of the racial inferiority which Biko sacrificed his life trying to reverse. Neither are the official guardians and proponents of Biko's ideas involved significantly on a global stage.

One is reminded of the relevance of Biko's writings today. The mind of the African, in the hands of her oppressor, is her own worst enemy: an implicit warning of Biko's Black Consciousness ideology. The Ideology is so powerful, that the mind of Biko had to be destroyed, making way for the nationalist plans of the Apartheid regime to survive until 2007.

Sadly, the Lion needs revival because she was taken from her sons and daughters before she imparted the basic skills of survival. What does it take for an idea to live? The sons and daughters have to learn, that unless one is serving time, one is in all likelihood, not interpreting the essence of this consciousness today. Our beloved Steve, paid with his life, for he gave the ideology a loud, global voice.

Related Sites:
ANC Grapples with Biko's legacy
Finding Truth is easier than reconciliation (N. Biko, 2004)
Stephanie Nolen (Globe and Mail)
Truth Commission (Al Jazeera)
Biko Killers Not Prosecuted
Report by Charlotte Plantive (Mail & Guardian)
Report by Clare Byrne (for Deutsche Presse Agentur)
Steve Biko Foundation
Medical Professionals and Torture (Lancet Letter)
Truth Commission
The Cape Argus (Sept 11th, 2007)