Stephen Bantu Biko :: essays research papers

Stephen Bantu Biko     Stephen Biko is known internationally as the founder of the S awayhAfrican Students Organization (SASO), and a leading beat back in the southeasterly Africa bleak Consciousness movement. He fought against the separation amidst blackand whites, called apartheid (the Afrikaans term for separateness). Hischildhood experiences and character, lead him to became a efficacious leader.Steve Biko was born on December 18, 1946, in King Williams Town, SouthAfrica. He father was a clerk and his mother was a housemaid. Following theSharpeville walloping in 1960, Biko was just 17 years old when he became a governmental activist. He started to become active when he got expelled fromLovedale High inculcate and his brother was arrested in a nationwide policecrackdown on political activists. He ended up graduating in 1966 at a boardingschool in original named St. Francis College.     By then, his mind and character were those of a leader. He had a quickbrain with huge mental phalanx and ideas. He had the gift to cut through to thecore of a trouble and find the best solution. "His mind was a tool to chiselout spirit and truth and order" (Woods 78). Biko was thoughtful, sensitive andhad a good sense of humor. He was motivated by the search for good and truth.At the University of Natal Medicine in 1968, he became involved in themultiracial subject area Union of South African Students. He was known by peers andadults as a student leader This organization fought for black rights, except hecl accepted that, "the white were doing all the talking and the blacks listening"(Biko 210). Biko wanted the blacks to have as often say and participation as thewhites, so in 1968 he became the co-founder and first president of he SouthAfrican Students Organization (SASO). This was an all-black organization,which aim was to raise self respect and reliance to all blacks. He said, " shadowyliberation start s with psychological self reliance. This can only be initiatedin isolation from allies whose good intentions are an obstacle to such self- acknowledgment" (Woods 63). This organization helped the foundation of anothermovement and convention, known as the South African Students Movement, and theBlack Peoples Convention (BPC). This movement also became known as the BlackConsciousness Movement. The movements he founded were headed towards students,because they were the ones that might change their minds, unlike the aged(a)people, who have already made up their minds. He published Black Review, whichwas a political journal for the black community. These movements andpublications raised so much controversy that the black man is as worthy as both