Africa, and the Christian social ethics that emerged and evolved. Chapter 4 focuses on his message, his critique of white liberal Christianity, as well as his subsequent mission and charge to create a black student organization and birth the Black Consciousness Movement.
Chapter 5 explores Biko’s message to blacks who bought into the multiracial philosophy of white liberals and their argument against black consciousness as separatist, racist, and promoter of segregation. Chapter 6 analyzes his message to oppressed blacks in helping them to seek a true humanity free of fear, inferiority, and oppression. Chapter 7 focuses on Biko’s message to the white minority government oppressing the black majority through apartheid. Chapter 8 examines Biko’s execution in comparison to Jesus’s and his legacy as well as various movements, efforts, programs, and centers that carry on his work and legacy. Chapter 9 is the conclusion, which provides the aim of the dissertation, a comparative analysis of the theoretical frameworks used, and a summation of all the chapters.
Abbreviations
ANC— African National Congress
AZAPO— Azanian People’s Organization
BC— Black Consciousness
BCM— Black Consciousness Movement
BCP— Black Community Programmes
BPC— Black Peoples Convention
BT— Black Theology
CRC— Coloured Representative Council
DRC— Dutch Reformed Churches
EFF— Economic Freedom Fighters
Nats— National Party
NP— National Party
NUSAS— National Union of South African Students
PAC— Pan Africanist Congress
POQO— Armed wing of the Pan Africanist Congress
SASO— South African Students’ Organization
SRC— Student Representative Council
UCM— University Christian Movement
UDF— United Democratic Front
UNNE— University of Natal Non-European
UP— United Party
Chapter 2
Becoming Steve Biko
This chapter examines Biko’s early childhood up through his young adult years to examine influences that helped shape his Christian experience. This examination will allow an opportunity to analyze the significance of what he understood the Christian message to be, how he incorporated it into the Black Consciousness Movement’s message, and how he embodied it as a leader.
Stephen “Bantu” Biko was “born on December 18, 1946, at his grandmother’s home in Tarkastad,” located in the Eastern Cape (Hill 2015, p. xxi). Biko was affectionately given the nickname Bantu to describe his personality and attributes as a child, especially his wittiness and charm. Bantu was “a name meaning ‘people’ that Biko translated to ‘son of man’ when he felt mischievous” (Hill 2015, p. xxi). It literally meant “son of the people.” Unbeknown to them, it was a foretelling of who he would become. Contrarily, Bantu was also used as a pejorative by the government to relate to black South Africans.
Biko’s parents settled in the Ginsberg Township in King William’s Town when Biko was about two years old. Both were devout Christians in the Anglican Church. His mother, Mamcethe (Alice) Biko, was a woman of strong faith. Prior to his death, his father, Mzingaye Biko, served faithfully as the church pianist. Mzingaye died in 1950 from a gastrointestinal disease when Biko was just four years old (Mangcu 2012, p. 89). Up to the time of his death, his father was a career police officer. Mamcethe was left to raise Biko and his siblings, Bukelwa, Khaya, and Nobondile. Biko’s spiritual adviser, Aelred Stubbs, noted that Mamcethe’s “strong Christian faith” helped her raise the kids on her own and support her son in his activism up to his death (Mangcu 2012, p. 88).
It was his older brother (by two years), Khaya, who was very influential in Biko’s life and interest in black empowerment and anti-apartheid advocacy. Khaya was heavily involved in the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). He never really showed interest in politics growing up until he attended Lovedale College, at which point Khaya says, “This is when the giant was awakened” (Mangcu 2012, p. 78). Prior to then, Biko was a bright student with a lot of promise, strong leadership skills, and a gregarious sense of humor. However, he had all the makings of a charismatic leader.
Growing up during the apartheid era, Biko witnessed separate development, like most South African youths at the time. Magaziner (2010) described this period as Biko’s memories of “forced removals, Bantu education, job reservation,” and protests (p. 29). Subsequently, according to Magaziner, this period led to a post-Sharpeville existence of silence. During this time, the black masses distrusted the police because they witnessed killings, banning, and imprisonment by the Security Police. The silence within the black community was deafening because many of the leaders of the ANC and PAC were in prison and/or banned, operating underground and in the shadows of society, avoiding the Security Police and informers. The lull created a need for a public voice aboveground to advocate on behalf of blacks, which eventually was fulfilled in the person of Biko. The ensuing life events awakened Biko and began to shape and prepare him for his journey ahead in advocating on behalf of blacks, educating the liberal white man, and fighting against apartheid.
In 1963, the first of these significant events would take place. Biko was admitted to Lovedale College but would soon find himself expelled, along with his brother Khaya and his friend Larry Bekwa. Lovedale was fertile ground for the newly politicized youth. Khaya’s involvement with the Pan Africanist Congress and POQO, which was PAC’s armed wing, would eventually land him in jail. There was a boycott of classes where Khaya was identified as a ringleader; the police swooped in, arresting him at Lovedale due to his POQO membership and Pan-Africanist stance. Since Biko was with his brother, the police also picked him up to retrieve his and his brother’s things from the dorm. Because of association, Biko was not arrested but expelled from Lovedale along with his brother. For a year, Biko lived with his friend Larry Bekwa, hiding from the police, where they “would sleep in the trees and among the corn fields behind (his) father’s house,” according to his friend Larry (Mangcu 2012, p. 107).
These events were pivotal in Biko’s life because they would be the catalyst for his political involvement from that time forward. Khaya says of this moment:
Steve was expelled for absolutely no reason at all. But in retrospect, I welcome the South African government’s gesture of exposing a really good politician. I had unsuccessfully tried to get Steve interested in politics. The police were able to do in one day what had eluded me for years. This time the great giant was awakened. (As cited in Mangcu 2012, pp. 108–109)
While working at an attorney’s office, Khaya was determined to get his brother admitted into another school after being expelled from Lovedale. Khaya’s diligence paid off, and Biko was admitted to St. Francis College at Marianhill, which was a premier and competitive college in South Africa. St. Francis College was established by Abbot Francis Pfanner to educate and “produce Christian leaders of the African race” (Mangcu 2012, p. 109). It is here that Biko would become involved in the Literary and Debating Society, continue to rise as a stellar scholar by being among the top five in his class, and excel above all his peers in English and
