Black consciousness still relevant to youth of today
THE philosophy of Steve Biko’s vision is as relevant to the youth today as it was 35 and more years ago. Since 2000, that vision and brilliance of Biko has been commemorated in an annual memorial lecture on September 12, the anniversary of his death. Biko, who died a few months before his 31st birthday, is revered as the embodiment of strong and proud black youth. The lectures explore the legacy of Biko’s leadership in society and the challenges that persist today. Previous speakers include Nelson Mandela, Chinua Achebe, Njabulo Ndebele and Mamphela Ramphele. In her 2005 lecture, Ramphele argued that society still has a long way to go in taking ownership of the fruits of freedom as long as they recognise that in “serving each other, we become free”. The youth were faced with the challenge, according to Ramphele, of “taking ownership of the gift of freedom”. In his 2006 lecture, Archbishop Desmond Tutu pointed out Biko recognising that true liberation meant conquering the notion that being black made one a victim and inferior. “It was a daringly novel diagnosis, that we were collaborators in our own oppression and subjugation. Black consciousness was meant to exorcise this demon, to make us realise that [as he said], we were human and not inferior,” Tutu said. It is a demon that many are still battling with 18 years after black people were freed from the bondage of racism and apartheid. This is because the battle over apartheid was not just wealth and power, as Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o put it, but a “battle over image, often fought out with words”. “Black consciousness, then becomes the right of black peoples to draw an image of themselves that negates and transcends the image of themselves that was drawn by those who would weaken them in their fight for and assertion of their humanity.” The need for the forging of history, and therefore memory, that would restore the dignity of people who have been battered through years of oppression and degradation, therefore become essential in regaining one’s self-definition and self-worth. It becomes a shame then, argues Ngugi, who gave the fourth lecture in 2003, that “our keepers of memory feel that they cannot store knowledge, emotions, intellect in African languages”. It is in light of this definition that former president Thabo Mbeki praised Biko for being unapologetic. Like David bringing down the giant Goliath, Biko “threw one stone to kill three birds” by debunking the notion of separate development that was the backbone of apartheid, turning on its head a “slave-like apathy” that reduced black men to timid creatures and reinforcing a positive notion of manhood and community.