Date: 23 Jan 2008
Title: Apartheid Museum chronicles Biko's life
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An exhibition at the Apartheid Museum traces the life
and death of Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko, to
show what is behind the icon, writes Lucille Davie.

It was revealed at the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission (TRC) that Black Consciousness proponent
Steve Biko died because he wanted to sit on a chair.
As a result, he was brutally beaten by the security
police and died from his injuries.

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of his death, the
Apartheid Museum has put together an excellent
exhibition on Mr Biko. Through about 50 panels filled
with text and graphics, the viewer can read the words
taken from his book "I Write What I Like."

But there are also many other things to read about the
man, and how he died a lonely death at the hands of
the brutal security police, reports the city of
Johannesburg on its official website.

There is unique footage of Mr Biko from a 1977 BBC
interview; and then minister of police Jimmy Kruger's
infamous comment after Biko's death:

"I am not glad and I am not sorry about Mr Biko. His
death leaves me cold. I can say nothing to you. Any
person who dies ... I shall also be sorry if I die
..." he said, laughing at his own joke.

There is also footage of Kruger. Initially, the
security police said that the cause of death was a
hunger strike. Several months later, when it was
acknowledged that Biko had died of brain damage,
Kruger said dispassionately: "A man can damage his
brain many ways. I have also felt like banging my head
against a brick wall many times, but realising now,
with the Biko autopsy, that may be fatal, I haven't
done it."

Bantu Steve Biko was born in King William's Town in
1948, a tall, handsome man with a charismatic
personality. He was a founder member of the South
African Students' Organisation, from which the Black
Consciousness Movement developed, with the slogan
"Black is beautiful".

Mr Biko said in his book: "When you say 'Black is
beautiful' you are saying, 'Man, you are okay as you
are; begin to look upon yourself as a human being.'"

A number of umbrella organisations were formed, one of
which was the Black People's Convention, which played
a role in the Soweto riots of 1976.

In 1973, he was banned and confined to Eastern Cape.
After the riots he was arrested repeatedly; by his
final arrest on 18 August 1977 he had been in and out
of jail frequently, including spending 101 days in
solitary confinement.

He was held naked and manacled at the Walmer police
station in Port Elizabeth, says human rights advocate
George Bizos in No One to Blame. On the morning of 6
September he was taken to the security police offices
in the Sanlam Building and interrogated until 6pm,
when he was again handcuffed and shackled.

He was examined and transferred to the prison
hospital; he was given a lumbar puncture, which
revealed blood in his spinal fluid. It was decided to
transfer him to Pretoria, a 1 200km journey that took
11 hours, with Mr Biko lying naked in the back of the
Land Rover. He died on 12 September 1977 in the
Pretoria prison hospital later that night. He was just
31 years old.

His death caused a worldwide outcry which temporarily
stopped the deaths in detention, but they resumed a
year to two later. In all, 115 people died in prison
between 1963 and 1990.

Mr Biko's wife, Ntsiki, says of his death in
detention: "I think Steve expected to die in the hands
of the security police. I think all of us expected it.
But Steve was prepared to sacrifice his life for the
black cause. He felt his work was so important that
even if he died it would be worth it."

And Mr Biko himself said of dying: "You are either
alive and proud or you are dead, and when you are
dead, you don't care anyway. And your method of death
can be a politicising thing."

The story about the chair was recounted when those
responsible for his death testified at the TRC, in a
bid to obtain amnesty for their actions. They made a
half-hearted effort at an apology, but were denied
amnesty because they had not told the truth.

Mr Bizos has a different interpretation of why the
security police had to get rid of Biko: "The state
considered Biko dangerous, not because he had ever
taken part in violent activities, but because of his
formidable intellect."

The exhibition traces Mr Biko's birth and education,
his spells inside jail, his relationships, and his
death in detention. There is a section, right at the
top end of the exhibition, which, says curator Emilia
Potenza, attempts to record details of others who died
in detention. A video broadcasts images of them and
their families, and any other details that researchers
have managed to accumulate.

Says Ms Potenza: "It is an extraordinary story which
moves beyond the icon on a T-shirt to what's behind
that icon."

The exhibition was put together at the request of the
national Department of Education, with assistance from
the Steve Biko Foundation. It makes use of many
original photographs, documents and audio-visual
clips, and draws on interviews with a range of his
contemporaries.

It will travel around the country and go overseas,
says Christopher Till, the museum's director.

"The Biko story is one that needs to be told."

His philosophy has won over the minds of many. "Many
of the BC [Black Consciousness] ideas have triumphed."

The exhibition will run until the end of June 2008.
The Apartheid Museum is on the corner of Northway and
Gold Reef roads, Ormonde. It is open from Tuesdays to
Sundays, from 10am to 5pm. - BuaNews

Baba Ras Marcus writes: What is really needed in Mama Africa and among African people everywhere, is a genuine consciousness uprising, which will flow like a mighty flowing river in the minds of African people everywhere, which will eventually wash away the false indoctrination from the minds of our people, resulting in the fading away of the dirty practice of divide and rule. Let the name of Steve Bantu Biko long be remembered.
Again I send many oceans of blessings and self determination to African people everywhere.
ONE BLACK HEART ONE BLACK LOVE
Baba Ras Marcus