The tragedy of Steve Biko

On December 2nd, 1977, a South African magistrate ruled that the Security Police bore no blame or responsibility for the death of Steve Biko while in their custody.




This was despite a pathologist's findings concerning his injuries, which included five major lesions to the brain, a scalp wound, an inner cut on the upper lip, and abrasions and bruising around the ribs. Despite such evidence, the police claimed that Mr. Biko died as the result of a 'hunger strike'. It was only many years later that the truth would emerge.

The magistrate accepted the Security Police's tale of how Mr. Biko had been injured, which was that he had 'gone berserk' while being interrogated by five of their members, and suffered his injuries during 'their attempts to prevent him hurting himself'. They explained his brain lesions by asserting that he'd 'fallen on the floor and bumped his head'. The magistrate made no comment - or adverse finding - about their admission that following his injuries, Mr. Biko had been stripped naked, wrapped in a blanket, thrown into the back of a Land-Rover pickup, and driven more than 750 miles from Port Elizabeth to Pretoria, without medical care or check-up.

This was, of course, a travesty of justice - not that justice had any part of what happened to Mr. Biko. The then Minister of Justice, Mr. Jimmy Kruger, stated openly, Biko's death 'leaves me cold'.

Mr. Biko founded the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) in South Africa, which was fiercely critical of that country's policies of apartheid and tried to mobilize the Black population to resist them. He was accused of several criminal offenses, but never convicted of any in a fair trial. The authorities killed him rather than bother with that.  I have no doubt at all that he was, indeed, guilty of offenses that can only be properly described as 'terrorism'.  In those bleak days, many were guilty of such things, on both sides of the political equation.  Nevertheless, the way to deal with such breakdowns of law and order is to reassert the supremacy of the law - not to further desecrate the rule of law by acting outside it, which is what the so-called 'forces of law and order' did in Mr. Biko's case and in many others.

The BCM was almost destroyed by Security Police action against it at the time of Mr. Biko's arrest. Hundreds of its leaders were arrested, and many jailed for long terms. Ironically, the police action against it probably saved many of its leaders from far more permanent reprisals by elements of the African National Congress (ANC), which now forms the government of South Africa. The ANC didn't want or tolerate rivals for its leadership of the 'struggle'.

In the early 1980's, elements of the ANC launched a series of savage attacks against the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) in the Eastern Cape, which was also the center of the BCM's activities. The ANC didn't want any effective internal rivals for power. The PAC virtually disintegrated under the onslaught, and is to this day a pale shadow of its former self. (The security police, of course, sat back and enjoyed the fun. Since they regarded both the ANC and PAC as enemies of the State, it was very much to their advantage to let their enemies eliminate each other. The fact that innocent people were caught in the crossfire bothered them not one whit.)

The death of Steve Biko was a momentous occasion in the political history of South Africa. It occurred less than a year after the Soweto riots of 1976, and galvanized anew the protest against apartheid by the Black people of the country. It would be remembered, and become a rallying-cry against racial oppression.

If justice is to be a reality, it must be justice for all. Mr. Biko received none.





Peter Gabriel recorded his famous song, 'Biko', as a protest against his death. However, perhaps the most haunting tribute was 'Asimbonanga' by Juluka, a South African group, in 1987. They sang of Nelson Mandela, then still in prison, and Steve Biko, long dead, as well as others who died. Here it is, performed live in 2007, with a guest appearance by Mr. Mandela.

Chorus : (2x)
Asimbonanga (We have not seen him)
Asimbonang' uMandela thina (We have not seen Mandela)
Laph'ekhona (In the place where he is)
Laph'ehleli khona (In the place where he is kept)

Oh the sea is cold and the sky is grey
Look across the Island into the Bay
We are all islands till comes the day
We cross the burning water

Chorus :
Asimbonanga (We have not seen him)
Asimbonang' uMandela thina (We have not seen Mandela)
Laph'ekhona (In the place where he is)
Laph'ehleli khona (In the place where he is kept)

A seagull wings across the sea
Broken silence is what I dream
Who has the words to close the distance
Between you and me

Chorus :
Asimbonanga (We have not seen him)
Asimbonang' uMandela thina (We have not seen Mandela)
Laph'ekhona (In the place where he is)
Laph'ehleli khona (In the place where he is kept)

Steve Biko

Chorus :
Asimbonanga
Asimbonang 'umfowethu thina (we have not seen our brother)
Laph'ekhona (In the place where he is)
Laph'wafela khona (In the place where he died)

Victoria Mxenge

Chorus :
Asimbonanga
Asimbonang 'umfowethu thina (we have not seen our brother)
Laph'ekhona (In the place where he is)
Laph'wafela khona (In the place where he died)

Neil Aggett

Hey wena (Hey you!)
Hey wena nawe (Hey you and you as well)
Siyofika nini la' siyakhona (When will we arrive at our destination)

Chorus :
Asimbonanga
Asimbonang 'umfowethu thina (we have not seen our brother)
Laph'ekhona (In the place where he is)
Laph'wafela khona (In the place where he died)

I remember the time of Mr. Biko's death . . . and I still mourn for him and so many other leaders, murdered before their time. Some were my friends.

South Africa might be a very different place today, with far fewer problems, if they'd lived.

Peter