Steven Biko Quotes

Quotes about:

• I'm going to be me as I am, and you can beat me or jail me or even kill me, but I'm not going to be what you want me to be.

  Steven Biko

  Jail, Want, Beats

  "Cry Freedom: Richard Attenborough makes a Mandela of Steve Biko" by Alex von Tunzelmann, www.theguardian.com. June 10, 2010.

  750 Copy quote

• It is better to die for an idea that will live, than to live for an idea that will die.

  Steven Biko

  Ideas, Black Consciousness, Dies

  "South Africa: Extremes in Black and Whites" by Scott Macleod, Time Magazine (p. 38), content.time.com. March 9, 1992.

  618 Copy quote

• The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.

  Steven Biko

  Historical, Mind, Weapons

  "White Racism and Black Consciousness" (paper presented at workshop sponsored by Abe Bailey Institute of Interracial Studies),Cape Town, South Africa, Jan. 1971

  464 Copy quote

• 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.

  Steven Biko

  Country, Pride, Men

  442 Copy quote

• Change the way people think and things will never be the same

  Steven Biko

  Thinking, People, Way

  386 Copy quote

• I would like to remind the black ministry and indeed all black people that God is not in the habit of coming down from heaven to solve people's problems on earth.

  Steven Biko

  People, Heaven, Black

  397 Copy quote

• People must be aware of their problems in a realistic way. They must be able to analyse their problems and to work out common solutions. In other words a community is easily divided when their perception of the same thing is different

  Steven Biko

  Work Out, People, Community

  182 Copy quote

• Being black is not a matter of pigmentation - being black is a reflection of a mental attitude.

  Steven Biko

  Attitude, Reflection, Black

  "I Write What I Like: Selected Writings". Book by Steven Biko edited by Aelred Stubbs, www.huffingtonpost.com. 1978.

  410 Copy quote

• The basic tenet of black consciousness is that the black man must reject all value systems that seek to make him a foreigner in the country of his birth and reduce his basic human dignity.

  Steven Biko

  Country, Men, Black

  Steven Biko (1979). “Steve Biko: Black Consciousness in South Africa”, Vintage

  395 Copy quote

• If one is free at heart, no man-made chains can bind one to servitude.

  Steven Biko

  Heart, Men, Made

  261 Copy quote

• The wealth of the country must eventually be enjoyed by people of the country

  Steven Biko

  Country, People, Wealth

  338 Copy quote

• When you say 'Black is beautiful' you are saying, 'Man you are okay as you are, begin to look upon yourself as a human being'.

  Steven Biko

  Beautiful, Men, Black

  220 Copy quote

• Black Consciousness is an attitude of the mind and a way of life, the most positive call to emanate from the black world for a long time. Its essence is the realisation by the black man of the need to rally together with his brothers around the cause of their oppression - the blackness of their skin - and to operate as a group to rid themselves of the shackles that bind them to perpetual servitude.

  Steven Biko

  Brother, Attitude, Men

  180 Copy quote

• A community is easily divide when their perception of the same thing is different

  Steven Biko

  Community, Perception, Different

  271 Copy quote

• The power of a movement lies in the fact that it can indeed change the habits of people. This change is not the result of force but of dedication, of moral persuasion.

  Steven Biko

  Perseverance, Lying, Dedication

  53 Copy quote

• So as a prelude whites must be made to realise that they are only human, not superior. Same with Blacks. They must be made to realise that they are also human, not inferior.

  Steven Biko

  Made, Prelude, Black Consciousness

  273 Copy quote

• At the time of his death, Biko had a wife and three children for which he left a letter that stated in one part: “I've devoted my life to see equality for blacks, and at the same time, I've denied the needs of my family. Please understand that I take these actions, not out of selfishness or arrogance, but to preserve a South Africa worth living in for blacks and whites.

  Steven Biko

  Children, Wife, Arrogance

  354 Copy quote

• A people without a positive history is like a vehicle without an engine.

  Steven Biko

  People, Vehicle, Engines

  215 Copy quote

• I am against the fact that a settler minority should impose an entire system of values on an indigenous people.

  Steven Biko

  People, Minorities, Facts

  148 Copy quote

• We have set out on a quest for true humanity, and somewhere on the distant horizon we can see the glittering prize. Let us march forth with courage and determination, drawing strength from our common plight and our brotherhood [and sisterhood]. In time we shall be in a position to bestow upon South Africa the greatest gift possible--a more human face

  Steven Biko

  Determination, Sisterhood, Drawing

  291 Copy quote

• You are either alive and proud or you are dead, and when you are dead, you can't care anyway.

  Steven Biko

  Alive, Care, Proud

  Steven Biko (1979). “Steve Biko: Black Consciousness in South Africa”, Vintage

  289 Copy quote

• We regard our living together not as an unfortunate mishap warranting endless competition among us but as a deliberate act of God to make us a community of brothers and sisters jointly involved in the quest for a composite answer to the varied problems of life. Hence in all we do we always place man first and hence all our action is usually joint community oriented action rather than the individualism.

  Steven Biko

  Brother, Men, Community

  262 Copy quote

• What Black Consciousness seeks to do is to produce real black people who do not regard themselves as appendages to white society. We do not need to apologise for this because it is true that the white systems have produced through the world a number of people who are not aware that they too are people.

  Steven Biko

  Real, White, Numbers

  286 Copy quote

• Merely by describing yourself as black you have started on a road towards emancipation, you have committed yourself to fight against all forces that seek to use your blackness as a stamp that marks you out as a subservient being.

  Steven Biko

  Fighting, Black, Use

  242 Copy quote

• Sure there are a few good whites just as much as there are a few bad Blacks. However what we are concerned here with is group attitudes and group politics. The exception does not make a lie or the rule - it merely substantiates it.

  Steven Biko

  Attitude, Lying, Groups

  115 Copy quote

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