BOOK ON NONTSIKELELO BIKO PLANNED
Heritage Council and Biko Foundation to join forces on project
National Heritage Council to aid with publication about life and times of Steve Biko’s widow
The National Heritage Council (NHC) will collaborate with the Steve Biko Foundation to pen and produce a book on the life of the former Black Consciousness Movement leader’s widow, Nontsikelelo Biko.
The collaboration was announced by the council’s chief executive officer Sonwabile Mancotywa on Thursday during a ceremony to honour Mama Biko’s role as a humanitarian and community activist.
The NHC leadership descended on Ginsberg in King William’s Town to hand over an Ubuntu Honour for the role Mama Biko played in preserving the legacy and heritage of her late husband.
The award was initially announced on September 14 at the council’s Golden Shield Awards in Kimberley.
The Ginsberg event was attended by family members, her two sons Nkosinathi and Samora and close friends.
“We will develop a book on her life and we have already engaged a panel of experts to develop the book building on her biography that is already there.
“All of the people close to her will have an opportunity to be interviewed so that they can share their experiences with her,” Mancotywa said.
He said the book would also be developed into a documentary.
Mama Biko, who hardly entertains the media spotlight, said she would like the book to highlight her role in the upliftment of those who needed help.
“I want this project to highlight me as Nontsikelelo, not as the wife of Steve Biko.
“I do not want it to highlight me as someone that is in the shadow of Steve.
“He met me as an old person that had an upbringing of her own,” she said.
She said that women should learn to stand on their own and be strong, adding that she was a patron of an organisation that comprised widows who engaged on difficulties they endured.
NHC chairperson Dr Thulani Mbuli said that the book also told the story of Biko’s two sons who grew up without their father. “We want to read about Nathi and Samora’s upbringing in this situation.”
Mama Biko’s eldest son Nkosinathi said that after the death of his father, his mother played a huge role in his life.
“When I went out of initiation school, I wished that my father was around to experience the ceremony, but my mother was there for me. She slaughtered 32 sheep and it was a great ceremony. Nkosinathi said.