the same interview the importance of black theology, specifically its role in black consciousness as a means to empower blacks and improve their self-image or self-identity. He states:
When an African became Christian, as a rule he or she was expected to drop traditional garb and dress like a Westerner…same with many customs dear to blacks…The question they ask is whether the necessary decolonization of Africa also requires the de-Christianization of Africa. The most positive facet of this questioning is the development of ‘black’ theology in the context of black consciousness. For black theology does not challenge Christianity itself but its Western package, in order to discover what the Christian faith means for our continent. (pp. 96–97)
Daniel Magaziner (2010), in his book The Law and the Prophets, argues that “Black theology was about politics, but it was not just about a nation; it was about an approach to God, but it was not only about religion…[although one can only argue that]. Black theology was deeply Christian because its adherents were but even more so because they consciously turned to Christ’s revelation in scripture to plot their own way forward” (p. 121). Different scholars took note of Biko’s stark view of the racial differences inherent in Christian teachings and practices in South Africa.
Clearly, Biko defined two types of Christianity at work: black and white. Dwight Hopkins, in Bounds of Possibility: The Legacy of Steve Biko and Black Consciousness, describes and compares Biko’s contention with them by stating that the problem with black churches was that they “uncritically swallowed the racist doctrines of white Christian missionaries. In particular, black churches embraced a false notion of sin as primarily drinking, smoking, stealing, etc.…by directing attention…to these petty sins” (Hopkins 1989).
Other researchers explained that “white theology prevented them [black Christians] from comprehending a larger perspective on sin…a system of evil, a structural matrix in which whites lorded themselves above the black majority” (Pityana 1991, p. 195). They further expounded that black Christians’ failure to see the trickery made them susceptible and supportive of the apartheid system. Biko’s willingness to fight against this evil system at any cost was apparent in a letter to Bishop David Russell in 1974, published in The Essential Steve Biko. In this letter, Biko explained that his willingness to fight was in effect being obedient to God.
Biko stated:
It is a call to men of conscience to offer themselves and sometimes their lives for the eradication of an evil. To a revolutionary, state evil is a major evil, for out of it flow countless other subsidiary evils that engulf the lives of both the oppressors and the oppressed. The revolutionary sees his task all too often as liberator not only of the oppressed but also of the oppressor…The revolutionary seeks to restore faith in life amongst all citizens of his country, to remove imaginary fears and to heighten concern for the plight of the people. (As cited in Malan 1997, p. 8)
Little did Biko know that he was predicting his own imminent fate.
As a revolutionary eradicating state evil, Biko died a very cold and cruel death on September 12, 1977. Du Toit and Maluleke (2008), in The Legacy of Stephen Bantu Biko: Theological Challenges, describes it this way: “The white policemen, in whose custody Steve was during his last days, were vicious and cruel—he was battered, kept isolated and for more than three weeks. In that state, he was thrown onto the cold floor of a Land Rover and driven for eleven hours, only to be dumped and left for several hours on a cell floor in Pretoria” (p. 61).
Bishop Tutu gives a chilling account as well in The Steve Biko Memorial Lecture: 2000–2008:
They tortured and beat Steve up in jail and heartlessly killed him. You will recall that he was driven, comatose, from Port Elizabeth, naked in the back of a Land Rover all the way to Pretoria, where he was shackled to a grate and left to expire, sitting in his urine. He was left to die a death that Mr. Jimmy Kruger later said had left him cold. (As cited in Steve Biko Foundation 2009, p. 94)
So interesting that like Jesus was executed by Rome for teaching a new way of life and advocating for the oppressed, Biko would be executed by the state for promoting a new way of thinking and believing in God amongst oppressed blacks in South Africa under the apartheid regime. Though they killed the man, they couldn’t kill the idea, not realizing it truly transcended time and space, literally like trying to shoot and kill a ghost. He embodied the Christian message, in thought and life, becoming “a way of life” in helping to liberate blacks and whites from the darkness and evil pervasive in a colonial Christianity that promoted and helped establish a wicked and demonic apartheid state system. I agree with Kortright Davis (1983), who writes in Foretastes of Emancipation in Third World Religion, “If Steve Biko’s name goes down in Black history as the Apostle of Black Consciousness, then there should be little quarrel with such an epithet—for it can truly be said that he paid the supreme price of proclaiming the Gospel of Black Consciousness even unto death” (p. 13).
Methodology
The research method used is qualitative, descriptive, and analytical; and the bulk of the data for the study was sourced from libraries in the Washington, DC, area, such as the Library of Congress and the Howard University Library System, which connects to universities and colleges within the DC Consortium of Universities, as well as universities and documentation centers in South Africa, such as the Steve Biko Foundation. These methods were selected because the study surrounds the significant historical events of apartheid, anti-apartheid resistance, and Biko’s life and death from 1946 to 1977, which requires reviewing and analyzing literature and life accounts from that time span.
The study uses two types of sources—primary and secondary sources. Primary sources consist mainly of speeches, letters, and interviews given by Biko and articles that he wrote, many of which are collected in his book I Write What I Like. Similar materials by Biko are also found in the collections of Gail Gerhart housed at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and the Steve Biko Foundation.
Secondary sources for this study consist of texts, journal articles, biographies, and essays written by scholars and persons who were related to and closely associated with Biko in his fight against apartheid, as well as materials such as films, videos, pamphlets, and lectures. Examples of these secondary texts include Donald Woods’s (1978) Biko, Basil Moore’s (1973) Black Theology, Mamphela Ramphele’s (2013) A Passion for Freedom, Barney Pityana’s (1991) Bounds of Possibility, Daniel Magaziner’s (2010) The Law and the Prophets: Black Consciousness in South Africa, James Cone’s (1969) Black Theology and Black Power, Dwight Hopkins’s (1989) Black Theology USA and South Africa: Politics, Culture, and Liberation.
Library research was conducted at the Library of Congress, including their online databases, and the Howard University Library System and DC area consortium. Also, during a short visit to South Africa in December 2017, I was able to visit and contact universities in South Africa for other resources and materials to assist with the research.
This study employs a close reading of primary sources and a content analysis approach in order to examine, describe, and analyze significant aspects of Biko’s thought and practice of black consciousness with a specific focus on his brand of black theology and critique of dominant white Christianity. Secondary sources are drawn upon for additional scholarly perspectives and analyses as well as for biographical and other contextual information, descriptions, and analyses and a timeline of major events leading up to his early death.
Organization of the Study
Chapter 1 consists of a general introduction, giving an overview of the dissertation and summarizing the problem, the aims and objectives, theoretical framework, definition of terms, literature review, and methodology. Chapter 2 attempts to answer the question “What is Stephen Biko’s Christian background?” This chapter provides a brief biography of Biko’s life, faith, education, and church affiliations, all of which helped shape his radical message
