Steve Biko

You know, you could see how during the fees must fall protests, you know, students came on board, you know, and campaigned and, you know, and all that, you know, and then we saw, you know, what happened.

Even Nelson Mandela, you know, when he was in prison, students were the ones who raised, under Steve Biko, you know, who raised that consciousness.

that this guy, you know, was in prison.

And we can see how South Africa also, of course, with support from other countries, confronted, you know, apathy, you know, and all that.

But I just want to touch on the issue.

You mentioned about women's riots.

You mentioned Steve Biko.

You also mentioned the Abiyoguta riots as well.

I'm just going out here on a limb, military barracks, Port Elizabeth.

It wasn't the same military barracks where Stephen Biko was arrested and put in prison, was it? I'm not sure.

That would have been...

A bit earlier.

Yeah, you've got a book there straight away.

You found it.

Stephen Biko.

Fantastic.

It's like there.

Steve Biko said it.

The revolution is inside.

Yeah, Steve Biko was the one who was trying to tell us that.

Have you forgiven your mother? My mom struggled.

She had four kids.

entirely with, you know, the West among ourselves.

I mean, the foundational pillars of this democracy, Aubrey, your Charlotte Matlakes, your Victoria Mklenges, your Sol Plakis, your Steve Bikos, your A.P. Mdas, your Robert Sobukwes, Abumamulili Ngoi, I mean, if you read Ketua Zulu's book, South African History Retold, when she'll even, the book is about street names in the new street names and trying to teach us who are those people, who is Beth Amkize? and the phenomenal things about Mabel Palmer and the University of Natal who were white but understood that you need to give quality education to black people and they did it extra time on weekends and so on.

The people who gave us the freedom

were

And part of controlling your mind is what? Is education, is media, okay? It's books, it's literature.

If I don't want you to think for yourself, if I don't want you to rise up and speak for yourself against the government, then I definitely don't want you to read Steve Biko.

I don't want you to read these anti-apartheid pamphlets because they might get you to stand up and fight.

I ban certain news stations.

We do commemorate the tragic murder of Ahmed Timo by these apartheid era police.

And we think back not only on Ahmed Timo, we think back on how common this was in apartheid South Africa.

We think about Steve Biko.

We think about all of...

We were in the midst in the mid 80s, mid to late 80s of South African apartheid and the whole divestiture movement that was sweeping college campuses and this country.

And I watched a movie, Cry Freedom, that dealt with the banning of Stephen Biko, and that really struck me.

It really made an impact on my Blackness at a soul level.

The gentleman who was the reporter in that story, in that movie, he actually came and spoke at the University of Colorado.

And so, you know, it's interesting that we wanted the University of Colorado to divest and hear this reporter who escaped South Africa with his family and Stephen Biko's life was terminated in South Africa.

I just wanted to know how he felt speaking at a university that hasn't divested.

So, you know, I was polite.