STEVE BIKO LEGACY ALIVE ‘BUT MORE CAN BE DONE’
SEPTEMBER 12 marks the 44th anniversary of the death of Steve Biko and he is still being remembered for his legacy of black consciousness.
For Seth Mazibuko, who was a young activist in the 1976 June 16 uprising, Biko’s legacy has not been treated with the importance it deserves.
Mazibuko said he believed the government had not done enough to elevate Biko as other Struggle heroes, particularly from the ANC, have been remembered.
He described it as deliberate. “There is a point of trying to play down Biko’s legacy. It is unfortunate that the government of the day does not give space to that legacy, it actually undermines that legacy,” Mazibuko said.
“Most of those historical events, ideologies, that do not sit easily with our current government, they will downplay them. They have done that with Robert Sobukwe.
“It is a selective memory of history. The apartheid government did the same thing. Our current government seems to be saying we will close some parts of history away,” he said.
Mazibuko, however, also acknowledged that young people were more conscious of the ideas Biko stood for. He said this was often reflected in movements such as #FeesMustFall.
“Today we speak with pride about being black. It is with Biko’s legacy that we can say black people are the rightful owners of this land. Steve Biko’s legacy speaks through #FeesMustFall and decolonising education,” he said.
Saths Cooper, who has a PhD in psychology and was a close associate of Biko, spoke to similar sentiments about Biko’s legacy.
“Outside Mandela, Steve Biko is a man remembered in the country.
Young people, in particular, look to Biko and his ideas because they are alive and uncompromising about black achievement,” he said.
Cooper said although Biko’s legacy was being remembered, there was a problem with how blackness was often framed in society.
“Black is almost invisible, except when there is a protest or horrible statistics. That tells you of the mind change that needs to happen to restore the mindset of credibility that this country enjoyed from the mid- to late-nineties – which is being undone now because of corruption,” he said.
Cooper said there was a need for a broader discussion and acknowledgement of race being the outlier in the country. He said there was no chapter nine institution in the country to deal with the legacy of race.
He pointed to the July unrest that swept through KwaZulu-Natal and
Gauteng as examples of the devastating impact of race relations in the country.
“While Biko may not officially be celebrated, people are mindful of the tremendous contribution he made.
“His legacy is still alive. The difficulty is there is no acknowledgement of the fact that we still have a massive disadvantage to confront, where race is still a dominant factor in our society,” Cooper said.