[DarkRainbow]

Stephen Bantu Biko was an 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".

On 18 August 1977, Biko was arrested at a police roadblock under the Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967 and interrogated by officers of the Port Elizabeth security police including Harold Snyman and Gideon Nieuwoudt. This interrogation took place in the Police Room 619. The interrogation lasted twenty-two hours and included torture and beatings resulting in a coma. He suffered a major head injury while in police custody, and was chained to a window grille for a day.

On 11 September 1977, police loaded him in the back of a Land Rover, naked and restrained in manacles, and began the 1100 km drive to Pretoria to take him to a prison with hospital facilities. He was nearly dead owing to the previous injuries. He died shortly after arrival at the Pretoria prison, on 12 September.

The police claimed his death was the result of an extended hunger strike, but an autopsy revealed multiple bruises and abrasions and that he ultimately succumbed to a brain hemorrhage from the massive injuries to the head, which many saw as strong evidence that he had been brutally clubbed by his captors. Then Donald Woods, a journalist, editor and close friend of Biko's, along with Helen Zille, later leader of the Democratic Alliance political party, exposed the truth behind Biko's death.

[carkees]

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/MgM-1r0X5Zc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Faline]

Thanks

[Rusty666]

[DoubleZ1013]

That song makes me cry.

[PTSD Is My Life]

this song was the reason I became politically aware, I was 11 and was shocked, nay stunned a man could be beaten to death for preaching non violence, for empowering his people and ultimately for having a different skin colour.
Everyone knows who Nelson Mandela is but Beko is often sadly forgotten.

[Spiffyfable]

Full Couch Casket with a Mirror