Azapo’S Rakwena Pays Tribute to Steve Biko

Jabu Rakwena AZAPO national spokesperson

By Jabu Rakwena
AZAPO National Spokesperson

September 06 to 12 is the most sacred period in the calender of the Black Consciousness Movement.

It is the period when Steve Biko went through the most traumatic time at the hands of racist white SA and culminating in his death shackled and naked on a cold floor in Pretoria prison.

Biko possessed a potent weapon against the oppressive regime, a free mind that can think what it likes, write what it likes and set alight the fire of true liberation.

He waged a battle for the sovereignty of the mind of the Black people.

The mind of the Black people was a contested terrain.

Hendrick Verwoed wanted it and was succeeding with his Bantu Education.

The mind of the Black person in the hands of apartheid masters was critical in ensuring calm and uncontested acceptance of the bantustans and homeland system.

A docile mind ensured the smooth transaction and theft of the land.

Forced removals would be executed without resistance.

Biko saw through this and waged a gallant fight for the mind of a Black person. He pumped life into this docile mind and set it alight.

The battlecry of “Black man you are on your own” found resonance and within a short space of 8 years (from 1968 to 1976) the country was ablaze with “Black Power!!”

The fear that gripped the apartheid rule could not be contained and to them the only solution was death.

Banning orders, house arrest and isolation could not stop Biko.

He evaded constant surveillance and traveled to Cape Town on a mission to bridge unity of the liberation movements.

On his way back he met a roadblock that let to his arrest and ultimate death.

Where is the mind of the Black person in this current dispensation? What would Biko be saying given the current situation that Black people find themselves? Have we done enough to truly liberate the mind and wrestle it from the clutches of morden day slavery? Where lies Black Power today?

To be continued….