May the Black God Stand Please!: Biko’s Challenge to Religion

Abstract

I am not old enough to have known Biko personally and to have understood him deeply during his lifetime. Nor was I geographically advantaged to have had even a distant kind of access to him. When Biko died in September 1977, I was only half his age and just beginning high school. His influence on my thinking has however been phenomenal. I therefore think that his legacy is as much mine as it is for others who feel compelled to appropriate it. The Biko legacy has, at times, been the subject of much contestation with some political parties and Biko’s contemporaries at the center of the contestations. The establishment of a nonpartisan Steve Biko Foundation has, therefore, brought a breath of fresh air to this atmosphere and hopefully it will “free the Biko legacy” from unhealthy contestations. The Biko legacy is important for South Africa and for the world at large. As an activist social theorist, Biko stands proudly and firmly in the traditions of Frantz Fanon, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X. In the midst of fierce contestations about the Biko legacy—many of which were but an aspect of the struggle against apartheid—it is my view that his unique contributions both to social theory and to the ethics of political activism remain grossly underestimated.

At some stage one can foresee a situation where black people will feel they have nothing to live for and will shout out unto their God: “Thy will be done.” Indeed His will shall be done but it will not appeal equally to all mortals for indeed we have different versions of his will. If the white God has been doing the talking all along, at some stage the black God will have to raise his voice and make Himself heard over and above the noises from His counterpart.

(Steve Biko)