Le September 12, 1977, at the age of 31, Steve Biko died alone, in a cell in the central prison of Pretoria (South Africa), from a brain injury. The photo of his corpse lying on the ground, naked, covered with wounds and bruises, went around the world thanks to the British journalist who was his friend, Donald Woods. Arrested on August 21 in Port Elisabeth, near his hometown where he was under house arrest after banishment measures, Biko was brought to the premises of the city's security police and questioned at their headquarters. Beaten several times, chained and completely undressed, he was in an already very serious state on September 7, the authorities will later acknowledge in a report which accuses doctors of not having detected the “neurological lesions” caused by "an accidental fall". It was not until September 11 that his immediate transfer to hospital was recommended. The police choose that of Pretoria, 1200 km further. In a comatose state, Steve Biko was transported to the capital in the back of a jeep, still naked, on the floor. His death, for which the authorities gave up to eight different versions, was confirmed the next day.
The charismatic leader of the black consciousness movement then became the symbol of resistance against apartheid, one of the great martyrs of South Africa. His fame reached the West far exceeding that of Nelson Mandela at the time. The latter's links with the African National Congress (ANC), an organization accused of " Marxist "Or even" pro-soviet ", Had considerably reduced, cold war obliges, the circles which relayed in Europe and even more in the United States the campaign of the ANC for the liberation of the one who would become a world icon at the end of the 1980 years.
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Black Consciousness: Writings from South Africa, 1969-1977
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Release Date | 2014-10-10T00:00:01Z |
Edition | 1 |
Language | Français |
Number Of Pages | 224 |
Publication Date | 2014-10-10T00:00:01Z |