June 25, 2019 • 28 mins
"This is the first truth, bitter as it may seem, that we have to acknowledge before we can start on any programme designed to change the status quo. It becomes more necessary to see the truth as it is if you realise that the only vehicle for change are these people who have lost their personality. The first step therefore is to make the black man come to himself; to pump back life 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” – Steve Biko, We Blacks, 1984.
Today, we recognize South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, who encouraged a mindset shift, promoting the idea that black is beautiful and that Black people should view themselves as human beings. By rejecting white dominance and empowering Black South Africans to embrace their humanity, Biko became a threat. His resistance and emphasis on decolonizing the mind is relevant today.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I have cherished the idea of a democratic and society.
It'll be all bestials we leave together in hall and
with equal opportunity. But my Lord, if it needs be,
(00:23):
it is an idea but which I am prepared to die.
You just heard anti apartheid revolutionary Nelson Mandela addressed the
court at the opening of his trial for sabotage in
April of nineteen sixty four. He said what many other
justice seekers have, that he was not afraid to die
(00:46):
in pursuit of freedom. Many people before him died for
their activism, and many people since then have been murdered
for speaking up. We mourn their deaths, and we wonder
what they could have done had they not been killed,
But thank goodness they lived. I'm Eve Steff Coote and
(01:07):
this is Unpopular a podcast about the people in history
who didn't let the threat of persecution keep them from
speaking truth to power. What do we do when we
are ruled by governments that perpetrate violence and meet out
harsh punishments indiscriminately? What do we do when we realize
we have the power to change systemic injustices. Well, not
(01:33):
everyone is compelled to fight on the front lines standing
up to big anything can be intimidating and scary, and
being one of nearly eight billion people in the world
can make us feel small and far from powerful. Risk
aversion helps keep us alive. The vanguard isn't for everybody,
(01:54):
but other times we feel the need to ignore that
primal drive for survival, where bungee jumping off the side
of a bridge, hundreds of feet in the air, with
only our bungee cords and strong conviction that it's not
our time to go there to save us. In the
nineteen fifty eight book Stride Toward Freedom The Montgomery Story
(02:15):
by Martin Luther King Jr. King said, this human progress
is neither automatic nor inevitable. Even a superficial look at
history reveals that no social advance rolls in on the
wheels of inevitability. Every step towards the goal of justice
requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle, the tireless exertions and passionate
(02:39):
concern of dedicated individuals. Without persistent effort, time itself becomes
an ally of the insurgent and primitive forces of a
rational emotionalism and social destruction. This is no time for
apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and
positive action. When I think about this quote, I get
(03:02):
caught on this idea of a world that's crumbling because
we are not constantly working. To be honest, there's something
about this sentiment that's depressing and makes me feel jaded.
The world gave us sandy beaches, tropical rainforest teeming with
colorful life, and prestige television just for us to have
(03:22):
to sacrifice many, many hours of leisure to keep us
from destroying ourselves. I mean, it doesn't sound like the
most well designed experiment, but that is the reality of
our time on Earth. It's not the most pleasant thing
to imagine being one step away from annihilation and having
to put an ungodly amount of work just to make
(03:45):
sure we don't reach that precipice. It toes the line
of absurdity. Kind of like scrambling to continuously fill a
bucket with a hole in it. But here we are
playing defense against the forces that threatened to hear us
apart It's tiring, but it's necessary. Stephen Bantubico was one
(04:08):
of the people who realized how inhumane and devastating apartheid
was too Black people, and took vigorous and positive action.
As Dr King put it, Apartheid was an institutional problem
that was pervasive in all segments of South African society,
but Vico was committed to the liberation of black folks
(04:29):
from that oppressive system of racial segregation and from self limitations.
He didn't get to see the end of apartheid, but
he did see his mission through to his end. Vico
was born in Tarka, stood in the Eastern Province of
South Africa now called Eastern Cape, on December eighteenth, nineteen.
(04:52):
His family was Closa, the second largest cultural group in
South Africa. His mother, Nokuzola Mackete Duna, worked as a
domestic worker and as a cook at Gray's Hospital Zungai Bico.
His father worked as a policeman then clerk in the
King Williamstown Native Affairs Office and some Gay died in
(05:15):
nineteen fifty before he could get his law degree from
the University of South Africa when Stephen was four years old.
Stephen was his parents third child. His older brother Kaya
was involved in the Pan Africanist Congress, an organization and
later political party concerned with Africanist policies for black South Africans.
(05:38):
Steve excelled as a student, but after Kaya was arrested
and jailed under suspicion of his involvement with the Armed
wing of the Pan Africanist Congress, Steve was interrogated by
police for his connection to Kaya and subsequently expelled from
his school, and at this point Steve's political interest was roused.
(06:00):
Kaya set the following about his younger brother. Steve was
expelled for absolutely no reason at all. But in retrospect,
I walk on the South African government's gesture of exposing
a really good politician. I had unsuccessfully tried to get
Steve interested in politics. The police were able to do
in one day what had eluded me for years. This
(06:23):
time the great giant was awakened. I know you're dying
to find out what the giant did when he got woke.
But we can't dive into Steve's activism without touching on
what apartheid was and how it started. When we come
back from the break, we'll talk a little about the
system of separateness that emerged in South Africa. Here's the
(06:57):
Crash course on the beginnings of apartheid, so you can
get a feel for the world. Beaco was born into
In nineteen ten, the former British colonies of the Cape Natale,
trans Fall and Orange River were united to become provinces
in the Union of South Africa, and the Union became
an independent dominion of the British Empire. Just three years later,
(07:21):
Territorial apartheid began in South Africa when the Land Act
was passed. The Act reserved most South African land for
white people and designated very little land for Africans. To
be specific, more than eighty percent of the land was
designated for white people, who made up less than twenty
of the population. Africans made up about sixty seven percent
(07:43):
of the population, but only about seven percent of arable
land was allocated to them as so called reserves. That percentage, though,
was later increased to thirteen White folks were not allowed
to buy land from black folks, and black folks were
not allowed to buy land from white people. Sharecropping on
farms was forbidden, though that wasn't always the case in practice.
(08:08):
While black people were being evicted off of white farmers land,
white farmers were getting low interest loans from the government
that allowed them to increase the efficiency of their farms.
Land dispossession and segregation were already part of South African
history before the Land Act was passed. The problem of
how to deal with indigenous peoples in South Africa became
(08:29):
known as the Native question. The Dutch in British seized
and occupied land as they pursued expansion, depriving indigenous African
communities of their land. So called native reserve were established
as early as eighteen forty eight in Natal and the
Gland Gray Act of eighteen ninety four, which applied to
a district in the Cape Colony, disenfranchised Africans and limited
(08:53):
the number of Africans who could live on and own
their own land. So even though the nineteen thirteen Land
Act was the first big piece of segregation legislation passed
by the Union Parliament, it was the culmination of years
of policies that enforced the perceived superiority of whiteness and
inferiority of blackness, and from their political discrimination based on
(09:19):
race and the enforcement of boss cap or white supremacy
for the benefit of the minority white state grew more aggressive.
Former Board General James Hertzog founded the African or Nationalist
Party in nineteen fourteen in opposition to the moderate policies
of Prime Minister Lewis Botha and Interior Minds and Defense
(09:41):
Minister Jan Christian Smuts Hertzog and the National Party supported
South Africa's interests over Britain's and advocated for two parallel
but separate cultural streams for the English and African or communities.
Afrikaaners are a South African ethnic who descended from Dutch,
(10:01):
German and French immigrants who migrated to South Africa in
the seventeenth century. By nine four, the National Party had
risen to power with the help of the Labor Party,
both of which wanted to protect white labor, and by
nineteen forty eight Daniel Milan had become the first Nationalist
(10:22):
Prime Minister, and the National Party introduced apartheid, which would
write white domination into law. Whites, Blacks, Indians and colors
as mixed people were called composed South Africa. The government
proceeded to institute laws that introduced identity cards, determined where
people lived according to race forbade interracial marriage and sex,
(10:45):
disenfranchised colored voters, allowed for the racial segregation of public areas,
and separated ethnic groups among Bantu stands or what the
government called Homelands. Steve got into the Durban Medical School
at the University of Natal Non European section in nineteen
sixty six. His first year there, he was elected to
(11:08):
the students Representative Council, which was a member of the
National Union of South African Students or in U s
a S. The in U s a S was mostly white,
as were most students in South African universities. Then, when
Steve went to an in U s a S conference
in nineteen sixty seven at Rhodes University, the black students
(11:32):
were fed and housed separately per the Separate Amenities at
passed by Parliament in nineteen fifty three. Protesting the s
a s IS knowledge of the arrangements, he proposed that
the conference be suspended, but that motion was dismissed. He
and other black students in the organization grew incensed with
(11:52):
the dominance of the white majority in the organization and
how their concerns weren't being acknowledged to him and other
South Africans in the organization. White liberals weren't totally genuine
about considering black folks equals, and they were implicit in
upholding the status quo of white people's racial superiority. Steve
(12:15):
began traveling throughout South Africa advocating for student organization for
black people only. Soon, students agreed to join Steed in
the creation of the South African Students Organization or s
A s O, which would truly address black people's needs
and completely reject white dominance. In nine, ECO split from
(12:37):
the National Union of South African Students to form the
s A s O. In July of the next year,
he was elected president of the organization. Here's some of
what he said in his presidential address to the first
National Formation School of s A s O in December
of nineteen sixty nine. After laying out the aims of
the organization. The fact that the all ideology centers around
(13:01):
non white students as a group might make a few
people to believe that the organization is racially inclined. Yet
what A s O has done is simply to take
stock of the present scene in the country and to
realize that not unless the non white students decide to
lift themselves from the duldrums will they ever hope to
(13:21):
get out of them. What we want is not black visibility,
but real black participation. In other words, it does not
help us to see several quiet black faces in a
multi racial student gathering which ultimately concentrates on what the
white students believe are the needs for the black students.
Because of our sheer bargaining power as an organization, we
(13:45):
can manage, in fact, to bring about a more meaningful
contact between the various color groups in the student world.
The creation of the s A s O was linked
with the Black Consciousness movement. The National Party government had
suppressed the Pan Africanist Congress and African National Congress, a
black nationalist organization that fought for the rights of colors
(14:08):
and Black Africans and opposed apartheid. The organizations continued to
operate underground and outside of South Africa, but new organizations
popped up to make up for how many liberation leaders
have been banned, imprisoned, or exiled. Nelson Mandela, for instance,
was arrested in nineteen sixty two and sentenced to life
(14:30):
imprisonment in nineteen sixty four. The state even kidnapped or
killed some activists. So groups that organized around the ideology
of the Black Consciousness movement rejected apartheid believed in black
solidarity as a means to achieve liberation, rejected the notion
that white people were superior, and embraced the value and
(14:52):
power of black people. Politically, the word black was an
inclusive term that constituted Indians, Colors, and Africans, though that
usage did not initially catch on in the mainstream. Black
consciousness required a shift in mindset where the term black
was a positive, unifying identification for people of color that
(15:13):
would encourage pride, and as the movement encouraged black leadership
and self reliance, the phrase black man, you are on
your own became its slogan that was radical. While many
people who were against apartheid were inspired by the movement,
others saw it and the S A s O as
(15:33):
anti white. Regardless, the s A s O launched literacy, health, agricultural,
and other community programs to better society, but also to
stimulate notions of self empowerment. BECO became the publication's officer
and started a series called I Write What I Like
under the pseudonym Frank Talk. But soon the s A
(15:56):
s O wanted to expand its reach by including non
student adults. In the nineteen seventy two, the Black People's
Convention was launched with the help of Vico, the Convention
brought together about seventy black consciousness groups like the South
African Students Movement, the National Association of Youth Organizations, and
the Black Workers Project. Vico became the first president of
(16:19):
the Convention, and that same year he was expelled from
medical school for his activism. Vico also helped found the
Black Community Programs, the purpose of which Vico described the
following way. The black man is a defeated being who
finds it very difficult to lift himself up by his bootstrings.
(16:39):
He is alienated, alienated from himself, from his friends, and
from society in general. He has made to live all
the time concerned with the matters of existence, concerned with tomorrow.
You know what shall I eat tomorrow? Now, we felt
that we must attempt to defeat and break this kind
of attitude to and still wants more a sense of
(17:02):
human dignity within the black man. Now I shouldn't note
here the reference to the black man solely. The attitudes
of men in the Black Consciousness movement were the same
as the attitudes of men in general. Women were typically
excluded and becos discourse around black consciousness. Women were certainly
(17:24):
a part of the movement, but they were largely acknowledged
as support. Think of the emphasis on black manhood and
the sexism happening in the Black Panther Party around the
same time in the States. But the seventies is when
the s A s O really gained ground. It called
for Banto stand leaders to stop enabling oppression, rejected apartheids
(17:47):
Bantu education system, and really pushed pride and black identity.
As the s A s O became more radical and
the government realized how much power it was gaining, Veco
and the organization and other leaders became targets of state
surveillance and silencing. We're going to take a quick break,
but when we get back, Vico's vocal opposition of apartheid,
(18:11):
support for black self determination and his leadership puts him
in the sights of the apartheid government. Vico and the
Black consciousness movements ideas around psychological liberation and black dignity
(18:34):
are still relevant. Internalized racism and inferiority complexes affect self
image and mental health to this day. Overcoming deeply ingrained
thought processes is difficult and requires a lot of unlearning,
but thinking differently is a key step towards acting differently,
(18:55):
and society has shown that manipulation of thought and mandating
ignorant are effective methods of oppression, and that knowledge and
insight helped pave the path towards emancipation. Black education, pride,
and self love have become important tenants and black folks
journey of healing and reclamation. Yet saying things like black
(19:19):
Lives Matter, advocating for black pride, and acknowledging the lingering
effects of a discriminatory history are still controversial. We could
argue and theorize all day about which activists and thought
leaders were brought down through state sanctioned suppression and violence
for their radical ideology, but the fact remains that people
(19:40):
of color around the world have been systemically disadvantaged to
the benefit of white people, and when that order has
been disrupted, it's often been met with brutal penalties. Instead
of conceding power, privileged and reputation for the advancement of
society those at the top, it often rather suppressed opposition
(20:02):
and deny progress to maintain the status quo. But what
good does it do humanity to thoughtlessly or selfishly uphold
harmful mindsets and systems Silencing people for intelligent dissent or
difference is antithetical to the history of human progress. Where
(20:25):
would we be without agitators and innovators. In March of
nineteen seventy three, the state banned Steve and confined him
to the magisterial district of King Williams Town. Per his
banning order, he went to his mother's house in Leytonville
and he stayed there for a while. Though he could
(20:47):
no longer work with the Black Community Programs in Durban,
he set up a branch of the bc P and
King Williamstown. He established a health clinic, helped with publications,
and ran the BCP office in Resource Center. The state
continued to surveil, arrest and detain Vico, but he was
never convicted and he kept advising on political issues and
(21:10):
working to unite black organizations. Meanwhile, the government was inflicting
cruel retribution upon other Black consciousness and anti apartheid activists
as well. Activists, mostly Booty Mangana was sentenced to five
years in prison for allegedly recruiting two police officers to
join the armed struggle. An activist, o Uncle pots Abram Tiro,
(21:33):
was killed by a parcel bomb in early nineteen seventy
four after he went into exile in Botswana. In June
nineteen seventy six, students in Soweto protested Bantu education and
the compulsory classroom use of Afrikaans, the language of the oppressor.
The protest, which spread around the country and became known
(21:54):
as the Soweto Uprising, resulted in the murder of hundreds
of students when least open fire. The world was watching
and many nations denounced the apartheid regime. Even so, the
state stayed steady and its arresting and murdering of Black
Consciousness leaders. A couple of months after the uprising, Steve
(22:16):
was arrested and put in solitary confinement for a hundred
and one days. In August eighteenth, nineteen seventy seven, Vico
and his friend and activists Peter Jones, were stopped at
a roadblock in the Eastern Cape Province. They were taken
to police stations in Port Elizabeth, where they were tortured
by security police. Vico was stripped and manacled for twenty days,
(22:40):
then transferred to the Sunline building in Port Elizabeth. While detained,
Steve was beaten severely and By September seven, he had
gotten a brain hemorrhage, but the police still kept him
making and chained in his cell. By the time he
was finally taken to get medical care, Vico was in
poor condition. He died on the night of September twelve.
(23:06):
White journalist and friend of Steve's, Donald Woods said the
following in an article he wrote after Steve's death, how
I wish I could publish for all white South Africans
his thoughts about their fears, prejudices, and timidities, and what
he saw as the clear answers to these. But the government,
through its banning orders, silenced all his public statements, and
(23:30):
even in death he may not lawfully be quoted. He
was imprisoned without trial more than once, experiencing solitary confinement
several times. He always came out of such ordeals as
tough as ever and as humorous about the interrogation session,
and Woods went on to say, since the death of
(23:52):
Steve Vico was announced, I have received gloating messages from
white racists who rejoiced in his death and believe it
will aid their cause. They don't realize to what extent
his moderation was preserving the brittle peace in this country. Initially,
(24:15):
the government said Vico died of a hunger strike, but
a post mortem exam showed that he had died from
brain injuries. About twenty thousand people attended Vico's funeral and
King Williamstown that November. Years later, a post apartheid hearing
by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission affirmed the abuse that
(24:35):
led to his death and doctor's compliance in the death.
Not long after Steve's death, the state banned eighteen organizations
and many anti apartheid activists. By the early nineteen eighties,
the black consciousness movement had fizzled out, and apartheid didn't
end until nineteen when South Africa got a new constitution
(24:58):
and a black majority government led by Nelson Mandela was installed.
Steve was not the only person who advanced the black
consciousness cause in South Africa, and he definitely was not
the only one who vehemently and forcefully opposed apartheid. After
his death, Vico was respected as a martyr for actively
(25:20):
rejecting the barbaric apartheid regime and making black lives better
through political and community work. He was instrumental in an
ecosystem of doers who knew that apartheid was wrong and
we're willing to put in the work to abolish it.
Plenty of people did not see eye to eye with Vico,
(25:42):
even people who were in the fight against apartheid with him.
Some anti apartheid activists were corrupt and acted out of
self interest. Some did not believe in lumping Asians and
colors in South Africa under the label black. Many people
in South Africa and beyond didn't not even think blackness
was worthy of celebrating or uplifting. But when the stakes
(26:05):
are so high for people like Vico, backing down are
giving up is not an option. Not everyone feels responsible
for or capable of solving huge problems like apartheid. We
should recognize the amount of sacrifice it takes to be
irradical with constructive concerns. I would venture to say that
(26:27):
most people who do don't want to be hated or die.
They just know it's a probable outcome of challenging power
structures and thought patterns, backed by strong emotions. Vico did
not fear death. It is better to die for an
idea that will live than to live for an idea
(26:49):
that will die. He said he was not willing to
go into exile and leave the movement and people behind.
Decolonizing minds and helping people find true humanity was the mission.
Echoing Frederick Douglas, Vico wrote, we must accept that the
(27:10):
limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those
whom they oppress. We have to work for our own
liberation and evolution, no matter the cost. If you are
doing that work of resistance, you will make enemies who
try to silence you. But what stories like Becos tell
(27:30):
us is that we must remain open to ideas and
modes of thought that we believe are wrong, far fetched,
or impossible. When the goal is worthy, we must suspend
some disbelief, challenge our own convictions, and demand justice. Andrew
(27:51):
Howard is our producer. Holly Fry and Christopher hasiotis our
our executive producers. If you're not already subscribed, you can
make sure you never miss an episode by subscribing to
the show on Apple podcast, to I Heart Radio app,
or wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back next
week with another episode of Unpopular M M
I have cherished the idea of a democratic and society.
It'll be all bestials we leave together in hall and
with equal opportunity. But my Lord, if it needs be,
(00:23):
it is an idea but which I am prepared to die.
You just heard anti apartheid revolutionary Nelson Mandela addressed the
court at the opening of his trial for sabotage in
April of nineteen sixty four. He said what many other
justice seekers have, that he was not afraid to die
(00:46):
in pursuit of freedom. Many people before him died for
their activism, and many people since then have been murdered
for speaking up. We mourn their deaths, and we wonder
what they could have done had they not been killed,
But thank goodness they lived. I'm Eve Steff Coote and
(01:07):
this is Unpopular a podcast about the people in history
who didn't let the threat of persecution keep them from
speaking truth to power. What do we do when we
are ruled by governments that perpetrate violence and meet out
harsh punishments indiscriminately? What do we do when we realize
we have the power to change systemic injustices. Well, not
(01:33):
everyone is compelled to fight on the front lines standing
up to big anything can be intimidating and scary, and
being one of nearly eight billion people in the world
can make us feel small and far from powerful. Risk
aversion helps keep us alive. The vanguard isn't for everybody,
(01:54):
but other times we feel the need to ignore that
primal drive for survival, where bungee jumping off the side
of a bridge, hundreds of feet in the air, with
only our bungee cords and strong conviction that it's not
our time to go there to save us. In the
nineteen fifty eight book Stride Toward Freedom The Montgomery Story
(02:15):
by Martin Luther King Jr. King said, this human progress
is neither automatic nor inevitable. Even a superficial look at
history reveals that no social advance rolls in on the
wheels of inevitability. Every step towards the goal of justice
requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle, the tireless exertions and passionate
(02:39):
concern of dedicated individuals. Without persistent effort, time itself becomes
an ally of the insurgent and primitive forces of a
rational emotionalism and social destruction. This is no time for
apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and
positive action. When I think about this quote, I get
(03:02):
caught on this idea of a world that's crumbling because
we are not constantly working. To be honest, there's something
about this sentiment that's depressing and makes me feel jaded.
The world gave us sandy beaches, tropical rainforest teeming with
colorful life, and prestige television just for us to have
(03:22):
to sacrifice many, many hours of leisure to keep us
from destroying ourselves. I mean, it doesn't sound like the
most well designed experiment, but that is the reality of
our time on Earth. It's not the most pleasant thing
to imagine being one step away from annihilation and having
to put an ungodly amount of work just to make
(03:45):
sure we don't reach that precipice. It toes the line
of absurdity. Kind of like scrambling to continuously fill a
bucket with a hole in it. But here we are
playing defense against the forces that threatened to hear us
apart It's tiring, but it's necessary. Stephen Bantubico was one
(04:08):
of the people who realized how inhumane and devastating apartheid
was too Black people, and took vigorous and positive action.
As Dr King put it, Apartheid was an institutional problem
that was pervasive in all segments of South African society,
but Vico was committed to the liberation of black folks
(04:29):
from that oppressive system of racial segregation and from self limitations.
He didn't get to see the end of apartheid, but
he did see his mission through to his end. Vico
was born in Tarka, stood in the Eastern Province of
South Africa now called Eastern Cape, on December eighteenth, nineteen.
(04:52):
His family was Closa, the second largest cultural group in
South Africa. His mother, Nokuzola Mackete Duna, worked as a
domestic worker and as a cook at Gray's Hospital Zungai Bico.
His father worked as a policeman then clerk in the
King Williamstown Native Affairs Office and some Gay died in
(05:15):
nineteen fifty before he could get his law degree from
the University of South Africa when Stephen was four years old.
Stephen was his parents third child. His older brother Kaya
was involved in the Pan Africanist Congress, an organization and
later political party concerned with Africanist policies for black South Africans.
(05:38):
Steve excelled as a student, but after Kaya was arrested
and jailed under suspicion of his involvement with the Armed
wing of the Pan Africanist Congress, Steve was interrogated by
police for his connection to Kaya and subsequently expelled from
his school, and at this point Steve's political interest was roused.
(06:00):
Kaya set the following about his younger brother. Steve was
expelled for absolutely no reason at all. But in retrospect,
I walk on the South African government's gesture of exposing
a really good politician. I had unsuccessfully tried to get
Steve interested in politics. The police were able to do
in one day what had eluded me for years. This
(06:23):
time the great giant was awakened. I know you're dying
to find out what the giant did when he got woke.
But we can't dive into Steve's activism without touching on
what apartheid was and how it started. When we come
back from the break, we'll talk a little about the
system of separateness that emerged in South Africa. Here's the
(06:57):
Crash course on the beginnings of apartheid, so you can
get a feel for the world. Beaco was born into
In nineteen ten, the former British colonies of the Cape Natale,
trans Fall and Orange River were united to become provinces
in the Union of South Africa, and the Union became
an independent dominion of the British Empire. Just three years later,
(07:21):
Territorial apartheid began in South Africa when the Land Act
was passed. The Act reserved most South African land for
white people and designated very little land for Africans. To
be specific, more than eighty percent of the land was
designated for white people, who made up less than twenty
of the population. Africans made up about sixty seven percent
(07:43):
of the population, but only about seven percent of arable
land was allocated to them as so called reserves. That percentage, though,
was later increased to thirteen White folks were not allowed
to buy land from black folks, and black folks were
not allowed to buy land from white people. Sharecropping on
farms was forbidden, though that wasn't always the case in practice.
(08:08):
While black people were being evicted off of white farmers land,
white farmers were getting low interest loans from the government
that allowed them to increase the efficiency of their farms.
Land dispossession and segregation were already part of South African
history before the Land Act was passed. The problem of
how to deal with indigenous peoples in South Africa became
(08:29):
known as the Native question. The Dutch in British seized
and occupied land as they pursued expansion, depriving indigenous African
communities of their land. So called native reserve were established
as early as eighteen forty eight in Natal and the
Gland Gray Act of eighteen ninety four, which applied to
a district in the Cape Colony, disenfranchised Africans and limited
(08:53):
the number of Africans who could live on and own
their own land. So even though the nineteen thirteen Land
Act was the first big piece of segregation legislation passed
by the Union Parliament, it was the culmination of years
of policies that enforced the perceived superiority of whiteness and
inferiority of blackness, and from their political discrimination based on
(09:19):
race and the enforcement of boss cap or white supremacy
for the benefit of the minority white state grew more aggressive.
Former Board General James Hertzog founded the African or Nationalist
Party in nineteen fourteen in opposition to the moderate policies
of Prime Minister Lewis Botha and Interior Minds and Defense
(09:41):
Minister Jan Christian Smuts Hertzog and the National Party supported
South Africa's interests over Britain's and advocated for two parallel
but separate cultural streams for the English and African or communities.
Afrikaaners are a South African ethnic who descended from Dutch,
(10:01):
German and French immigrants who migrated to South Africa in
the seventeenth century. By nine four, the National Party had
risen to power with the help of the Labor Party,
both of which wanted to protect white labor, and by
nineteen forty eight Daniel Milan had become the first Nationalist
(10:22):
Prime Minister, and the National Party introduced apartheid, which would
write white domination into law. Whites, Blacks, Indians and colors
as mixed people were called composed South Africa. The government
proceeded to institute laws that introduced identity cards, determined where
people lived according to race forbade interracial marriage and sex,
(10:45):
disenfranchised colored voters, allowed for the racial segregation of public areas,
and separated ethnic groups among Bantu stands or what the
government called Homelands. Steve got into the Durban Medical School
at the University of Natal Non European section in nineteen
sixty six. His first year there, he was elected to
(11:08):
the students Representative Council, which was a member of the
National Union of South African Students or in U s
a S. The in U s a S was mostly white,
as were most students in South African universities. Then, when
Steve went to an in U s a S conference
in nineteen sixty seven at Rhodes University, the black students
(11:32):
were fed and housed separately per the Separate Amenities at
passed by Parliament in nineteen fifty three. Protesting the s
a s IS knowledge of the arrangements, he proposed that
the conference be suspended, but that motion was dismissed. He
and other black students in the organization grew incensed with
(11:52):
the dominance of the white majority in the organization and
how their concerns weren't being acknowledged to him and other
South Africans in the organization. White liberals weren't totally genuine
about considering black folks equals, and they were implicit in
upholding the status quo of white people's racial superiority. Steve
(12:15):
began traveling throughout South Africa advocating for student organization for
black people only. Soon, students agreed to join Steed in
the creation of the South African Students Organization or s
A s O, which would truly address black people's needs
and completely reject white dominance. In nine, ECO split from
(12:37):
the National Union of South African Students to form the
s A s O. In July of the next year,
he was elected president of the organization. Here's some of
what he said in his presidential address to the first
National Formation School of s A s O in December
of nineteen sixty nine. After laying out the aims of
the organization. The fact that the all ideology centers around
(13:01):
non white students as a group might make a few
people to believe that the organization is racially inclined. Yet
what A s O has done is simply to take
stock of the present scene in the country and to
realize that not unless the non white students decide to
lift themselves from the duldrums will they ever hope to
(13:21):
get out of them. What we want is not black visibility,
but real black participation. In other words, it does not
help us to see several quiet black faces in a
multi racial student gathering which ultimately concentrates on what the
white students believe are the needs for the black students.
Because of our sheer bargaining power as an organization, we
(13:45):
can manage, in fact, to bring about a more meaningful
contact between the various color groups in the student world.
The creation of the s A s O was linked
with the Black Consciousness movement. The National Party government had
suppressed the Pan Africanist Congress and African National Congress, a
black nationalist organization that fought for the rights of colors
(14:08):
and Black Africans and opposed apartheid. The organizations continued to
operate underground and outside of South Africa, but new organizations
popped up to make up for how many liberation leaders
have been banned, imprisoned, or exiled. Nelson Mandela, for instance,
was arrested in nineteen sixty two and sentenced to life
(14:30):
imprisonment in nineteen sixty four. The state even kidnapped or
killed some activists. So groups that organized around the ideology
of the Black Consciousness movement rejected apartheid believed in black
solidarity as a means to achieve liberation, rejected the notion
that white people were superior, and embraced the value and
(14:52):
power of black people. Politically, the word black was an
inclusive term that constituted Indians, Colors, and Africans, though that
usage did not initially catch on in the mainstream. Black
consciousness required a shift in mindset where the term black
was a positive, unifying identification for people of color that
(15:13):
would encourage pride, and as the movement encouraged black leadership
and self reliance, the phrase black man, you are on
your own became its slogan that was radical. While many
people who were against apartheid were inspired by the movement,
others saw it and the S A s O as
(15:33):
anti white. Regardless, the s A s O launched literacy, health, agricultural,
and other community programs to better society, but also to
stimulate notions of self empowerment. BECO became the publication's officer
and started a series called I Write What I Like
under the pseudonym Frank Talk. But soon the s A
(15:56):
s O wanted to expand its reach by including non
student adults. In the nineteen seventy two, the Black People's
Convention was launched with the help of Vico, the Convention
brought together about seventy black consciousness groups like the South
African Students Movement, the National Association of Youth Organizations, and
the Black Workers Project. Vico became the first president of
(16:19):
the Convention, and that same year he was expelled from
medical school for his activism. Vico also helped found the
Black Community Programs, the purpose of which Vico described the
following way. The black man is a defeated being who
finds it very difficult to lift himself up by his bootstrings.
(16:39):
He is alienated, alienated from himself, from his friends, and
from society in general. He has made to live all
the time concerned with the matters of existence, concerned with tomorrow.
You know what shall I eat tomorrow? Now, we felt
that we must attempt to defeat and break this kind
of attitude to and still wants more a sense of
(17:02):
human dignity within the black man. Now I shouldn't note
here the reference to the black man solely. The attitudes
of men in the Black Consciousness movement were the same
as the attitudes of men in general. Women were typically
excluded and becos discourse around black consciousness. Women were certainly
(17:24):
a part of the movement, but they were largely acknowledged
as support. Think of the emphasis on black manhood and
the sexism happening in the Black Panther Party around the
same time in the States. But the seventies is when
the s A s O really gained ground. It called
for Banto stand leaders to stop enabling oppression, rejected apartheids
(17:47):
Bantu education system, and really pushed pride and black identity.
As the s A s O became more radical and
the government realized how much power it was gaining, Veco
and the organization and other leaders became targets of state
surveillance and silencing. We're going to take a quick break,
but when we get back, Vico's vocal opposition of apartheid,
(18:11):
support for black self determination and his leadership puts him
in the sights of the apartheid government. Vico and the
Black consciousness movements ideas around psychological liberation and black dignity
(18:34):
are still relevant. Internalized racism and inferiority complexes affect self
image and mental health to this day. Overcoming deeply ingrained
thought processes is difficult and requires a lot of unlearning,
but thinking differently is a key step towards acting differently,
(18:55):
and society has shown that manipulation of thought and mandating
ignorant are effective methods of oppression, and that knowledge and
insight helped pave the path towards emancipation. Black education, pride,
and self love have become important tenants and black folks
journey of healing and reclamation. Yet saying things like black
(19:19):
Lives Matter, advocating for black pride, and acknowledging the lingering
effects of a discriminatory history are still controversial. We could
argue and theorize all day about which activists and thought
leaders were brought down through state sanctioned suppression and violence
for their radical ideology, but the fact remains that people
(19:40):
of color around the world have been systemically disadvantaged to
the benefit of white people, and when that order has
been disrupted, it's often been met with brutal penalties. Instead
of conceding power, privileged and reputation for the advancement of
society those at the top, it often rather suppressed opposition
(20:02):
and deny progress to maintain the status quo. But what
good does it do humanity to thoughtlessly or selfishly uphold
harmful mindsets and systems Silencing people for intelligent dissent or
difference is antithetical to the history of human progress. Where
(20:25):
would we be without agitators and innovators. In March of
nineteen seventy three, the state banned Steve and confined him
to the magisterial district of King Williams Town. Per his
banning order, he went to his mother's house in Leytonville
and he stayed there for a while. Though he could
(20:47):
no longer work with the Black Community Programs in Durban,
he set up a branch of the bc P and
King Williamstown. He established a health clinic, helped with publications,
and ran the BCP office in Resource Center. The state
continued to surveil, arrest and detain Vico, but he was
never convicted and he kept advising on political issues and
(21:10):
working to unite black organizations. Meanwhile, the government was inflicting
cruel retribution upon other Black consciousness and anti apartheid activists
as well. Activists, mostly Booty Mangana was sentenced to five
years in prison for allegedly recruiting two police officers to
join the armed struggle. An activist, o Uncle pots Abram Tiro,
(21:33):
was killed by a parcel bomb in early nineteen seventy
four after he went into exile in Botswana. In June
nineteen seventy six, students in Soweto protested Bantu education and
the compulsory classroom use of Afrikaans, the language of the oppressor.
The protest, which spread around the country and became known
(21:54):
as the Soweto Uprising, resulted in the murder of hundreds
of students when least open fire. The world was watching
and many nations denounced the apartheid regime. Even so, the
state stayed steady and its arresting and murdering of Black
Consciousness leaders. A couple of months after the uprising, Steve
(22:16):
was arrested and put in solitary confinement for a hundred
and one days. In August eighteenth, nineteen seventy seven, Vico
and his friend and activists Peter Jones, were stopped at
a roadblock in the Eastern Cape Province. They were taken
to police stations in Port Elizabeth, where they were tortured
by security police. Vico was stripped and manacled for twenty days,
(22:40):
then transferred to the Sunline building in Port Elizabeth. While detained,
Steve was beaten severely and By September seven, he had
gotten a brain hemorrhage, but the police still kept him
making and chained in his cell. By the time he
was finally taken to get medical care, Vico was in
poor condition. He died on the night of September twelve.
(23:06):
White journalist and friend of Steve's, Donald Woods said the
following in an article he wrote after Steve's death, how
I wish I could publish for all white South Africans
his thoughts about their fears, prejudices, and timidities, and what
he saw as the clear answers to these. But the government,
through its banning orders, silenced all his public statements, and
(23:30):
even in death he may not lawfully be quoted. He
was imprisoned without trial more than once, experiencing solitary confinement
several times. He always came out of such ordeals as
tough as ever and as humorous about the interrogation session,
and Woods went on to say, since the death of
(23:52):
Steve Vico was announced, I have received gloating messages from
white racists who rejoiced in his death and believe it
will aid their cause. They don't realize to what extent
his moderation was preserving the brittle peace in this country. Initially,
(24:15):
the government said Vico died of a hunger strike, but
a post mortem exam showed that he had died from
brain injuries. About twenty thousand people attended Vico's funeral and
King Williamstown that November. Years later, a post apartheid hearing
by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission affirmed the abuse that
(24:35):
led to his death and doctor's compliance in the death.
Not long after Steve's death, the state banned eighteen organizations
and many anti apartheid activists. By the early nineteen eighties,
the black consciousness movement had fizzled out, and apartheid didn't
end until nineteen when South Africa got a new constitution
(24:58):
and a black majority government led by Nelson Mandela was installed.
Steve was not the only person who advanced the black
consciousness cause in South Africa, and he definitely was not
the only one who vehemently and forcefully opposed apartheid. After
his death, Vico was respected as a martyr for actively
(25:20):
rejecting the barbaric apartheid regime and making black lives better
through political and community work. He was instrumental in an
ecosystem of doers who knew that apartheid was wrong and
we're willing to put in the work to abolish it.
Plenty of people did not see eye to eye with Vico,
(25:42):
even people who were in the fight against apartheid with him.
Some anti apartheid activists were corrupt and acted out of
self interest. Some did not believe in lumping Asians and
colors in South Africa under the label black. Many people
in South Africa and beyond didn't not even think blackness
was worthy of celebrating or uplifting. But when the stakes
(26:05):
are so high for people like Vico, backing down are
giving up is not an option. Not everyone feels responsible
for or capable of solving huge problems like apartheid. We
should recognize the amount of sacrifice it takes to be
irradical with constructive concerns. I would venture to say that
(26:27):
most people who do don't want to be hated or die.
They just know it's a probable outcome of challenging power
structures and thought patterns, backed by strong emotions. Vico did
not fear death. It is better to die for an
idea that will live than to live for an idea
(26:49):
that will die. He said he was not willing to
go into exile and leave the movement and people behind.
Decolonizing minds and helping people find true humanity was the mission.
Echoing Frederick Douglas, Vico wrote, we must accept that the
(27:10):
limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those
whom they oppress. We have to work for our own
liberation and evolution, no matter the cost. If you are
doing that work of resistance, you will make enemies who
try to silence you. But what stories like Becos tell
(27:30):
us is that we must remain open to ideas and
modes of thought that we believe are wrong, far fetched,
or impossible. When the goal is worthy, we must suspend
some disbelief, challenge our own convictions, and demand justice. Andrew
(27:51):
Howard is our producer. Holly Fry and Christopher hasiotis our
our executive producers. If you're not already subscribed, you can
make sure you never miss an episode by subscribing to
the show on Apple podcast, to I Heart Radio app,
or wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back next
week with another episode of Unpopular M M
Unpopular News
Host
Yves Jeffcoat
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