Status Updates From Biko

Of fucking course it was ONLY the U.S. and the UK who vetoed sanctions against South Africa in response to apartheid.

Damn the torture Peter Jones endured (and what we can assume ended up killing Biko) is awful I hate humanity so much sometimes how can people do that

“It is my belief that there are no national boundaries when the welfare of the family of humanity is grossly assaulted.”

Wow history really does repeat itself … the Afrikaner Nationalists winning a narrow victory by exploiting white fear and persuading enough white ppl that their identity could only be protected by applying apartheid. Then, once in power, they manipulated laws, enlarged the Senate unconstitutionally, passed bills removing anti-apartheid parliament reps, redrew voting districts, appointed their own judges, etc.

“To prevent people from being able to earn enough to pay high taxes, then to deny them rights because they don’t pay high taxes, is the height of cynicism.”

He’s popping off!!!

“The argument that whites built up South Africa and devil it into its present preeminence as a modern industrial state is also invalid, for not one single building or factory was ever built without black labor - and cheap black labor, at that, in most cases.”
STAND ON BUSINESS YEPPP

“Their version of Christianity, which justifies apartheid, is rejected by leaders and theologians of all the major Christian sects - and the Afrikaner Nationalists know it.”

“They [apartheid laws] are the result of polite caucus discussions by hundreds of delegates in sober suits, after full debate in party congress. They are passed after three solemn readings in a parliament that opens every day’s proceedings with a prayer to Jesus Christ. There is special horror in that fact.”

Mr. Kentridge has some crazy clap backs during the inquest oml

Fuck I’m not ready to start this section about Steve’s detention, torture, and death 😭😭

Jeez there are SO many parallels between Trump’s admin & the Afrikaners Nationalist Party - the party upholding apartheid.

“Our rulers think their enemy is words, and that if they prevent certain words being uttered by certain people they have won. But their enemy is thoughts more than words. Words, after all, are merely the reflection of thoughts. The thoughts are what matter, and you cannot legislate against thoughts.”

“Democracy is really only a success if the people who have the right to vote can intelligently and honestly apply a vote.”

Yeppppp

Honestly this is super interesting that Biko had such strong concepts of Black Consciousness given that he had never even left South Africa and had grown up under apartheid.

Damn him mentioning how he looked up at the U.S. “with its guarantees of individual liberty and its checks and balances that had produced the glorious chapter of Watergate, in terms of which even the highest officer in the State could be toppled from power for misdemeanors.”

Oh how far we’ve fallen,

“The first step therefore is to make the black man come to himself; to pump back like into his empty shell; to infuse him with pride and dignity, to remind him of his complicity in the crime of allowing himself to be misused and therefore letting evil reign supreme in the country of his birth. This is what we mean by an inward-looking process. This is the definition of ‘Black Consciousness.’”

Reading 1984 and then this where Steve reads 1984 while imprisoned is crazy

So far, this is the most self aware and self critical (but not self deprecating) author I’ve ever encountered.

“The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”

Stop this is literally the Mandela effect bc why does this book say that he lived out his natural life imprisoned on Robben Island, like he did not!!

“All lawful methods of expressing opposition to this principle had been closed by legislation, and we were placed in a position in which we had either to accept a permanent state of inferiority, or to defy the government. We chose to defy the law.”

Damn why am I getting emotional at this Nelson Mandela excerpt!!

Wait am I dumb for not knowing Gandhi spent 21 years in South Africa … is this like an “I fear everyone knew that” moment

My dad assigned me this book to read before our trip to South Africa! 🇿🇦

Literally just the prelude by the author was so riveting and told a harrowing story of his escape from South Africa after being a Banned Person after speaking out against apartheid.

My dad told me this book is depressing as hell and so graphic so here we goooo