To be honest, we've dumped Biko’s philosophy

The same black people who go around preaching “Black Consciousness” have deserted their indigenous African languages. They are proud that their kids can't speak any language other than English!

By Madibeng Kgwete: posted on 13 September 2007

Perhaps the saddest thing about the celebrations marking the 30th Anniversary of the death of the leader of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM), Steven Bantu Biko, is that they coincide with a period in which blacks are becoming their own greatest enemies.

In Biko’s own words: “We do not want to be reminded that it is we, the indigenous people, who are poor and exploited in the land of our birth. These are concepts which the Black Consciousness approach wishes to eradicate from the black man's mind before our society is driven to chaos by irresponsible people from Coca-cola and hamburger cultural backgrounds."

Today, 13 short years after the attainment of freedom and democracy in South Africa, “the irresponsible people from Coca-cola and hamburger cultural backgrounds” have had the upper hand. Black people are proud when their children cannot speak a single African indigenous language. Speaking English is the new measure of wisdom!

To be honest, we black people in the new South Africa – including those in Biko’s movement, the Azanian People’s Organisation (AZAPO) – have dumped Biko’s philosophy of black consciousness. Talk about being black and proud and you’ll be called a “counter-racist” that is unappreciative of Nelson Mandela’s great reconciliation efforts.