Thursday marks 42 years since Black Consciousness leader, Steve Bantu Biko, died in detention. According to SA History Online, Biko was a popular voice of Black liberation in South Africa between the mid-1960s and his death in police detention in 1977.
According to his biography, Biko was arrested four times in the late 1970s and detained for several months at a time.
He was arrested in Port Elizabeth in August 1977. A month later on September 11, Biko was found naked and shackled several kilometres away in Pretoria.
He died from a brain haemorrhage the following day on September 12, 1977. It was later discovered that the haemorrhage resulted from the injuries he had sustained while in police custody. Biko’s death caused national outrage.
On this day, 12 September 1977, Bantu Stephen Biko died in police detention at Pretoria Central Prison. He had suffered head injuries after being interrogated and beaten by racist police authorities. We remember #SteveBiko‘s selfless sacrifice to restore people to their humanity pic.twitter.com/xmNNZ1KMYc
— SteveBikoFoundation (@BikoFoundation) September 12, 2019
Naked and manacled, police drove #SteveBiko 1 190 km to a hospital in Tshwane after being severely assaulted by apartheid police. The apartheid government told the public he died from a hunger strike. Biko died alone in a cell on this day in 1977. pic.twitter.com/lzCYWJSFjM
— Christo (@ChristoThurston) September 12, 2019
The world might have forgotten but we haven’t. The spirit of #SteveBiko lives✊
“Being black is not a matter of pigmentation – being black is a reflection of a mental attitude.”#IwriteWhatIlLike pic.twitter.com/6GQ2rnrtlL
— Nontsikelelo Buzo (@Lelo_Buzo) September 12, 2019
