Thursday, February 4, 2010

My blog on Stephen Biko

Stephen Biko


Peter Gabriel's song BIKO came up on my Pandora Radio (www.pandora.com) a few minutes ago and I felt the urge to blog about it. I posted the links on my facebook but am always interested in saving the important stuff in my blog too....again, random stuff that usually has nothing to do with anything.

For those of you who will read this and wonder what the hell I am talking about the links to info will follow..I promise!

The first time I heard BIKO was in 1994...I was a 14 year old and very curious about everything. I had purchased the Woodstock '94 CD's and listened to them through until I got to this song. I was floored...it was so sad...I remember that the name sounded familiar to me so I did what every kid would have done before the age of the internet being in every house...I went to the library!

After several hours of research I was completely appalled by what I had learned.
How ridiculous of grownups! How could they DO that!? Now mind you I was a pretty easy going and shy kid who was very non confrontational....I didn't really understand violence and how people could hate based on skin color, race, creed, beliefs, ect.

Well I still don't really understand why people do stuff like that (and I'm almost 30) but I think you kind of get immune to it if you see it enough (it's all over the news and the net all the time, right?!)

It's amazing the stuff that stands out in your mind from your life...of all the things for a 14 year old to be interested in....I was always reading and looking to learn more stuff about everything. That's why I have a random knowledge base about lots of different topics...always reading!

Getting back to Steven Biko....

The following come straight from wikipedia:

"Stephen Bantu Biko (18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977) was a noted anti-apartheid activist in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. A student leader, he later founded the Black Consciousness Movement which would empower and mobilize much of the urban black population. Since his death in police custody, he has been called a martyr of the anti-apartheid movement. While living, his writings and activism attempted to empower black people, and he was famous for his slogan "black is beautiful", which he described as meaning: "man, you are okay as you are, begin to look upon yourself as a human being". Despite friction between the African National Congress and Biko throughout the 1970s, the ANC has included Biko in the pantheon of struggle heroes, going as far as using his image for campaign posters in South Africa's first non-racial elections in 1994."

If that has peaked your interest in this topic, the rest of the page is at this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Biko

Peter Gabriel's song:



Sadly the police officers who murdered Biko were never brought to justice but his life and death impacted a lot of people and affected lots of change in South Africa and the world over.

Rest In Peace Stephen Biko



Signing Off 20:36

No comments:

Post a Comment

please feel free to leave me your feedback....thanks!