Steve Biko Essay

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Oct. 6th, 2011 Prof. Jakari STEVE BIKO "We are looking forward to a non-racial, just and egalitarian society in which color, creed and race shall form no point of reference." - Steve Biko Bantu Steven Biko was born on 18 December 1946 in Ginsberg, a township outside King William's Town. He was the third child in an average family where his father was a clerk and his mother was a maid. Biko was not offered the opportunity to know his father because he died when Biko was only four years old. After graduating from Marian hill in Natal, he attended the University of Natal, where he studied medicine from 1966 to 1972. He enjoyed medicine but was preoccupied with politics, specifically getting the attention of all his fellow black brothers and sisters to raise the level of their pride and consciousness of their black heritage and rich tradition. Bantu Steve Biko was a strong leader and showed his courage during the fight against apartheid. He wanted to end the restrictive racial policies in the white government of South Africa known as apartheid. The confidence he had in changing the black treatment in South Africa, his philosophy of civil disobedience and the effectiveness in his writing style made him a strong and efficient leader. He matches with the definition of a strong leader: a person who is determined and ready to fight for their objective until and after their death. Leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Henry David Thoreau did not face the violence Biko faced where the government prevented his voice from being heard, however, Biko made sure the people of South Africa knew who he was and the objectives he was striving for. By 1972 Biko was one of the founders of the Black Peoples Convention working on social uprising projects around Durban, he then became elected as the first president of the Black People Convention. Later the
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