Bantu Steve Biko

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Bantu Steve Biko was a strong leader and showed his courage during the fight against apartheid. The confidence he had in changing the black treatment in South Africa, his philosophy of civil disobedience, and the effectiveness in his writing style made him a strong and efficient leader. He matches with the definition of a strong leader: a person who is determined and ready to fight for their objective until and after their death. Perhaps the best description of him would be “Unconquered and Unconquerable,” as stated in the title of Lewis Latimer’s poem. Leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Henry David Thoreau did not face the violence Biko faced where the government prevented his voice from being heard, however, Biko made sure the people of South Africa knew who he was and the objectives he was striving for.
Biko was a South African political leader of the late 1960s; he wanted to end the restrictive racial policies in the white government of South Africa known as apartheid.
He was born on 1946 in King William’s Town and was always active during political activities; he died in the hands of the ones he fought against on 1977 while in prison, but left his name and beliefs fighting for justice. Biko was president of two associations fighting for the end of apartheid, South African Students' Organization in 1968 and Black People's Convention in 1972; he was continuously arrested for the “violence” he was creating during the meetings of these associations and he ended up banned. Biko sought to liberate the minds of Africans, arguing that liberation grows out of “the realization by the Blacks that the most potent weapon in the hands of
the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed ” (“Biko, Stephen”). This idea was the “Black Consciousness” he tried to explain to the Black people so they would not be used and instead fight back for their rights.
Civil disobedience is a word that the government, and they...