Stephen Biko was the leading figure in the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa. A medical student, father, fluent in three languages, he became the voice of resistance against the South African apartheid regime.
Nelson Mandela and other major ANC leaders had already been in prison for a decade. Steve Biko picked up the torch of opposition and turned it in a new direction. The Black Consciousness Movement was about awakening black people to the power of their own identity and their ability to take control of the society in which they were the majority. Biko paid for his beliefs with his life. He died at the age of 30, in police custody, days after a police beating left him with brain damage. Chained and naked in his holding cell, he was denied medical attention. The police claimed his death was the result of a hunger strike. The year was 1977.
Let us not forget our own history. In 1986, the US passed the Anti-Apartheid Act, initiating strong economic sanctions (including trade and investments) against South Africa until such time as the apartheid laws were removed. The bill was passed over the veto of Ronald Reagan by a Republican Senate and a Democratic House. It was a major setback for Reagan. The US was at that time still capable of moral outrage, and acted on it, admittedly years after other Western nations had imposed their own sanctions. The US sanctions were lifted in 1991, after Nelson Mandela was released from prison and the dismantling of the apartheid system began.
In my youth, I was fortunate enough to work on a project that aired on a commercial US cable network, called “The Biko Inquest”. It was originally produced as a play in London, then was filmed for Channel 4 in the UK, and eventually found its way to the US. The most remarkable thing about the piece is that the words were simply transcribed verbatim from the actual inquest, which took place in Johannesburg in 1985. The system of apartheid was still in place. Members of the police were interviewed at length during the inquest, as well as Biko family members, friends, and witnesses. Albert Finney played the (white) South African lawyer representing the Biko family. The words of the inquest speak for themselves. The officers involved, those who arrested him, those who transported him, those who detained him, were directly responsible for his death. The verdict of the inquest, however, was “No one was to blame…” The death of Stephen Biko was yet another unfortunate accident. Another black life lost, but who was counting in South Africa in 1985?
My exposure to the story changed my perception of the world forever. I was a kid working in post-production, and my job was to “package” this piece of theater, based on real events, in such a way that an American audience could understand it. So I did the research. I cobbled together a 12-minute documentary introduction that told the audience who Stephen Biko was, and even explained apartheid, just in case Americans were not reading international news. I contacted Bishop Desmond Tutu – through the miracle of the fax machine – and asked him to give a statement about the importance of Steve Biko. I found a TV crew in Johannesburg, who went to the home of Bishop Tutu to record the statement, which was then physically shipped to me in New York on videotape. The short doc did its job as a set up for the extraordinary words of the inquest. It included footage of Biko as a dynamic speaker and of his funeral, with hundreds of people walking and singing behind his coffin. Biko left behind a wife and 5 children.
After his release from prison, and becoming South Africa’s new President, Mandela instigated the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in order to help the nation heal. Though there are many struggles in South Africa today, the country has fared better than many others emerging from colonialism and Western domination. In 1992, the 4 police officers responsible for Stephen Biko’s death finally admitted their guilt at a Truth and Reconciliation Committee hearing. They were not granted amnesty, which was an option available for those who confessed their crimes under apartheid. If you want to know more, read about Stephen Biko, or try to find “The Biko Inquest”. You can skip the 1987 movie, CRY FREEDOM, in which a young Denzel Washington plays Biko. Typical of Hollywood, that film is mostly about the white journalist who championed Biko, Donald Woods, played by a very fine actor, Kevin Kline. It was a controversy at the time.
Steve Biko’s murder might be viewed as yesterday’s news except for all the black lives lost here over the last years. Every one of them someone’s father, daughter, sister, brother, son, or friend. We need to keep saying their names, to keep it personal. The “Say Their Names Memorial” on the bridge in Hoboken is eloquent and respectful. Look up the couple in Smyrna, Georgia, who created plaques to honor the dead in their hometown park. Maybe this time these lives will not be forgotten.
Black and brown people have been killed by desensitized racists, who are also armed and dangerous, AKA, our police forces. Not all police are evil or even racist. I believe this. But I also believe we have been living under a system of apartheid in this county that is equal in its evil effects to that of the old South African regime, but more invisible. Our apartheid is not about passes and miscegenation, but about employment, health care, education, incarceration and a massive system of police brutality.
When I think about Kenosha, and Portland, and so many other cities suffering, grieving, taking up arms, fighting and fighting back, I wonder who is there to stop it and call for justice and make change happen. Will we ever be able to have our own Truth and Reconciliation Commission? I’m aware that both of the presidential candidates eventually showed up in Kenosha. I know that the VP candidates are going to Pennsylvania. I know both sides will visit the states where key votes need to be won. But we need more than candidates at this moment. We need Nelson Mandela. We need Dr. King. We need John Lewis. We need Steve Biko. Is there any leader out there who can do more than look for votes? I hope so, or we are lost. Meanwhile, we can do what we need to do in our own towns, our homes, our hearts. Black Lives Matter is another way of saying End the Apartheid. Here, now, in America.
Next week: Voting.
Kim, Again, thank you for your thoughtful writings. I hadn’t thought of Stephen Biko since college… Your words encouraged me to read more about him, and I will. Also, I didn’t know or your young life as a producer! Girl! You made all that happen! Wow. Super proud to call you my friend..
And vice versa. You always inspire me with your work for the community and your passion for social justice. Yes, it’s amazing what one can do when you don’t know what’s not possible. The blessed ignorance of youth. Good to remember.
Great discussion Kim — so useful to be reminded that there is a historical context for these terrible tones. Maybe even reason for a crumb or two of hope.
Thanks for reading. Trying to make some sense out of these times, and if the blog offers any insight to anyone, its worth it.
Wonderful blog. Thank you. Sweet Honey in the Rock have a wonderful number, called BIKO. Do you know it?
Yes – I do know it – but hadn’t thought about it when I wrote the blog – will download it…Great to be reminded about Sweet Honey… I remember you always loved them – as do I! Thanks for reading.
Voting
I received my application for an absentee ballot in Maine from the Maine Democratic party 10 days ago. I am a registered Democrat. The mailing was so well done. With a letter explaining all my voting options was enclosed an application for an absentee ballot and a pre-paid envelope in which to mail it to my town hall. My name and address were already entered in the absentee ballot application. Then I would receive my absentee ballot in the mail in plenty of time to vote and mail it back before the presidential election. I have to give the Maine Dems credit; they got it right with me. I love the post office and know my local carriers, but I also know they are overloaded. So in 2020, I’ll pick up my own ballot from the local town hall, vote, and return it at the same time (we have that option here in my town). The absentee voting outreach here is superb, but inevitably, not everyone will be reached. I still worry about the people who have moved, who have not voted for a while, and of course the independents, of which there are so many in Maine. I will sign up to help with the get out the vote campaign here in Maine – getting people to the polls if necessary, or picking up ballots if it appears they may not be mailed in time – whatever it takes. But it’s all more difficult in coronavirus times.
Voting is, as many have said before, one of the privileges we have in this country. But the history of voting in the US informs our lives today. Voting was originally for white men who owned property. Then the owning property was dropped. After a Civil War, black men could vote. After political resistance, women could vote. After Jim Crow laws were re-instated, effectively no black people could vote in many states. We are still fighting for the right to vote all over the country. The obstacles have changed, but not the problem. I saw the lines of people trying to vote in the 2020 Georgia primary in the middle of the pandemic. Many had requested absentee ballots that didn’t arrive. I heard the interviews with older citizens explaining that they simply had to turn out or it would be an insult to their deceased family members who had fought so hard for the right to vote. They honored them by standing in line wearing a mask – for hours. In addition to inadequate access to voting facilities, we also have gerrymandering, internet trolls spreading false information about candidates, and the possibility of voter hacking by a well known foreign power. We have a US Postal Service with compromised facilities and personnel at the very time that more people are relying on the absentee vote by mail system, which could be the most secure system of voting we have. Most people will rely on the post office to receive their absentee ballots, and return them via the US mail. Very few people can walk their absentee ballot to their local town hall or polling place, as I can. We all need to pay attention to this issue and help if we can. Even if people know for whom they want to vote, it may not be easy for them to actually vote and have their vote count.
I voted for the first time in 1972. It was a landmark presidential election. The law had recently been changed to allow 18 year olds to vote. I was a freshman college student, and a very serious girl. I had learned about politics from a high school math teacher who was a Quaker. He taught us algebra and tolerance. He wore a black armband to school when Martin Luther King was assassinated. My mother called Dr. King “a troublemaker”. He and his wife took a group of us students to Washington DC for an anti-war rally. I lied to my parents about where I was going. When I got to college, in addition to a punishing load of classes, I found the campus Democrat club. I knocked on doors in the surrounding town for McGovern. He was running on an anti-war platform. He had longish hair and sideburns. He was our hero. I didn’t at the time realize the significance of his running mate, Sargent Shriver. Shriver was the founder of the Peace Corps, and the Job Corps, and many other social programs under the Johnson administration. There were also protests against the war on campus. We students went on a hunger strike for a week and demanded that our pre-paid food money be donated to Red Cross efforts in North Vietnam. The administration said it was done (no idea if that was true), and we went back to the cafeteria. The 1972 Presidential election was a resounding victory for Richard Nixon, and his esteemed running mate, Spiro Agnew. It was a devastating defeat for my first real foray into politics. In 1974, when I was spending a study summer abroad, Watergate happened, soon to be followed by Nixon’s resignation. It seemed as if some type of justice was, in fact, possible.
Small sidebar. In 1972, I was still a resident of the state of Delaware, though I was attending a university in a nearby state. The campus Dem club explained to me how to request an absentee ballot, and I did. I guess I wrote a physical letter – that I don’t remember. On the ballot, in addition to the presidential candidate, was a young, Democratic county councilman running for US Senate on an anti-war platform against a sitting Republican Senator. I voted for the Democrat. While all 3 of Delaware’s electoral votes went to Regan, inexplicably, the young Senatorial Dem candidate won. His name was Joe Biden. He then served 7 terms in the US Senate from the State of Delaware.
I knocked on doors many times over the years – to register people to vote, to remind them to vote, to encourage them to vote for a particular candidate, or a particular proposition or issue. I did it in NYC, in Los Angeles, and in the 2018 mid terms in Maine. I stood in line to vote (admittedly not for hours at a time, and not during a pandemic) at a Hebrew school in NYC, a fire station in Los Angeles, elementary and high schools in both NYC and Los Angeles and I loved it all. It made me feel empowered. Not in every campaign, but in many, I had made some small effort to be involved. I always did my research about even lesser offices – even if it was just calling up a more politically savvy friend about the candidate for State Comptroller. Every political office is important because those that we vote for hire, and appoint other people who reflect their own values. We certainly have learned this from the appointment of judges across the country under the current federal administration.
So does voting matter? I heard a pastor in Philadelphia say on NPR that because he didn’t particularly favor the policies of the Democratic candidate, but he could not support the current President, he thought he might just not vote at all. I’d like to say to him: Please don’t do that. Don’t be passive. Do the opposite. Encourage your congregation to vote and find ways to help them. Don’t give up quite yet. We may still have a shot.
Meanwhile – updates on voting in various crucial states.
In Wisconsin, a Green Party candidate has halted the distribution of absentee ballots until they are re-printed because he was not listed on the ballot Thousands of absentee ballots have already been sent out. Shades of Ralph Nader. Thank you, Green Party. Wisconsin is a key swing state.
In Texas, according to a new court ruling, unless you are over 65 or have a disability it will not be possible to vote using an absentee ballot unless one can prove an acceptable reason – COVID19 is not such a reason. Some of my friends are working from afar on getting Democratic voters to register and vote in Texas. You can get more information on Texas Democrats website.