Tag: Biko

BIKO BOOK REVIEW: “NDIBHALA INTANDO YAM”

On 21 March 2026, I had the honour of attending the historic launch of the isiXhosa translation edition of Steve Biko’s book I Write What I Like at the Steve Biko Centre in Ginsberg. I have no doubt that I represent the entire nation in doffing my hat to the Biko family for a job well […]

WHAT ON EARTH QUALIFIES HELEN ZILLE AS AN ‘ANTI-APARTHEID ACTIVIST’?

South African history records Saths Cooper as one of the SASO Nine — student leaders arrested in 1974 for their ‘anti-apartheid’ activities. Cooper was not “so-called.” He was, and remains, a central figure in the Black Consciousness Movement and a true liberation activist. Yet, in stark contrast, Helen Zille is also labeled an “anti-apartheid activist” […]

BLACK TIE, BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS

There’s a certain magic that occurs when a room full of Black people gathers in grace, power, and purpose. Cloaked in tuxedos, evening gowns, pride, and legacy. It’s not simply a soirée. It’s not just another awards dinner. It’s a reclamation. A declaration. A spiritual conversation carried out in silk and basslines, laughter and remembered […]

BC PARTIES BURY THE HATCHET IN HONOUR OF STEVE BIKO

The leadership of the Black Consciousness Movement used the 48th anniversary of the death of its founder, Steve Biko in Pretoria on Friday to call for the unity of the organizations. The call was made by AZAPO’s chairman, Mr Amukelani Ngobeni and Black Consciousness Movement United (BCMU) president, Dr Hlulani Mabasa. They were speaking at […]

BIKO: A LIGHT IN A TIME OF DARKNESS

Nothing describes and summarises Steve Biko’s brief but sufficient life on earth as does the title of the legendary Alice Walker’s 2007 book, We are the Ones We have Been Waiting For: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness. While he died at the tender age of 30, he would have turned 79 this coming December.  […]

DIARY OF A BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS TOWER WHO SURVIVED APARTHEID BRUTALITY TO TELL THE STORY

August 18, 2025, marked 48 years since Black Consciousness father Steve Biko was arrested in a roadblock with his confidant and comrade, Peter Cyril Jones. The writer, a BC anti-apartheid activist and a contemporary of Biko, recounted the events of that fateful roadblock and that resulted in Biko’s assassination in police custody on September 12, […]

CURRENT POLITICAL BICKERING MISSES STEVE BIKO’S HISTORIC MISSION TO UNITE LIBERATION FORCES

From his arrest at a roadblock with Peter Jones, on August 18, 1977 in Grahamstown, Steve Biko was on a mission he described as forming one liberation movement. That was the last detention that Biko, the founding father of Black Consciousness, would be seen alive. He would only emerge weeks later when his mortal remains […]

THE STRUGGLE AND THE SPIRIT WORLD: ANCESTORS APPARITIONS, AND THE AFTERLIFE OF RESISTANCE

Beyond the Physical Battle While the liberation struggle in South Africa is often narrated through guns, chants, marches, and negotiations, another dimension operated in tandem, one largely unspoken, sometimes mocked, and yet profoundly real to many who participated. The spiritual dimension. The realm of ancestors. The invisible world of rituals, dreams, and prophecies. For many, […]

MYSTERY SURROUNDS THE GRUESOME FIND OF THE “PEOPLE’S DOCTOR” AND “STRUGGLE HERO” DR GOMOLEMO MOKAE’S BULLET-RIDDLED BODY IN HIS HOME

Anti-apartheid Struggle hero and a stalwart of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM), Dr Gomolemo  Mokae, has been murdered at his home Ga-Rankuwa Zone 1 home north of Pretoria. Dr Mokae’s lifeless body was found with evidence of a violent death. According to reports, a postmortem has revealed that the “People’s Doctor” was “shot on both […]