Steve Bantu Biko, 1946-1977

Stephanie Nolen wrote a great piece in the Globe today on the 30th anniversary of the death of Steve Bantu Biko, one of South Africa's most famous anti-apartheid activists and founder of the Black Consciousness Movement, who was killed by South Africa's security police about a month after he was arrested--without charge--under SA's Terrorism Act of 1967.

She offers much more than a tribute, providing a solid, contextual reflection about Biko's legacy in South Africa today.

Here she writes about the dissolution of the Pan-African Congress ...

The political party that grew out of his ideas, the Pan-African Congress, was officially declared dead a few weeks ago, when its last handful of members defected to other groups.

It's kind of weird; in South African politics, there's an official floor-crossing window for MPs. I don't fully understand its origins, but from the editorials and op-eds I read around the time it was going on, I gather that it was once a valid and desired part of the system but has since become extremely undemocratic: like in floor-crossing scenarios in Canada, the floor-crossing MP's constituents feel jerked around and robbed of their vote. Zapiro sums it up pretty nicely here.

This part is also pretty interesting:

"That goes fundamentally to explaining why we've got massive protests all around the country... poor communities protesting the lack of services delivered to them," Mr. Hamilton said.

I can't find the story now, but back in June, the Mail and Guardian's lead feature story was about how already there was something like twice as many person-days lost to strike in 2007 (in June) than any previous year. The story looked at the growing wealth gap in South Africa and while an elite few are reaping the benefits of BEE, the majority of people aren't experiencing the supposed rapid economic growth of SA, which was causing the unrest among lower classes.

And then, in the factbox ...

His friend, journalist Donald Woods relentlessly investigated his death. Mr. Biko had told him that if the state ever claimed he had died on hunger strike or by his own hand, Mr. Woods would know it was a lie.

I always read that Helen Zille, former reporter at the Rand Daily Mail and current mayor of Cape Town and leader of South Africa's Demoratic alliance, was the one who vigorously investigated and exposed how Biko was actually killed by security police and did not die of a hunger strike. I hadn't heard of Donald Woods before. That's kind of crazy how Biko predicted what would happen. I guess apartheid's security police were kind of predictable in some ways, though.

Weird aside: Helen Zille was arrested a couple of days ago (yes, the mayor of Cape Town was arrested in Cape Town) for her participation in an anti-drug protest. Wow, there's already something about it on Wiki. Her statement about the arrest is here. Now that's a mayor.