Biko {rev. & updated ed.}

Having read the 1987 version of this book I felt I was viewing a snapshot of a very particular time. At the time of the printing of this edition, South Africa was in a state of turmoil, and as Donald Woods correctly pointed out, the question was not if violence would increase, but when.

This book is written in a rather propagandist time, but unusually I do say this as a means of levelling criticism. Instead, the desperation of Woods to convince the international community that it was of incredible importance to stop supporting apartheid by vetoing economic sanctions.

I quite honestly had no idea of the vast legacy left by Steve Biko - without the Black Conscious movement, who knows what might have ended up happening in South Africa. This show more is a wonderful book and I would recommend it to anyone both as a factual read and as a work of incredible humanity. show less

What i remember from this book is the simple but strong statement-“If you guys want to do this your way, he tells his jailers, you have got to handcuff me and
bind me feet together, so that I can’t respond. If you allow me to respond, I’m certainly
going to respond. And I’m afraid you may have to kill me in the process even if it’s not
your intention”. I take this to mean that he is a free man. Even though he is in jail, he decides. Because he is willing to die for his freedom, no one can take it from him. But they can take his life- and they did.