Are you ready for some Quotes for Liberation?

i am busy reading the Voices of Liberation book on Steve Biko by Derek Hook. 

And i am LOVING it!

i have always been a huge fan of ‘How can man die better?’ by Benjamin Pogrund, which tells the story of Robert Sobukwe. And while i am aware to some extent of how important Steve Biko is in the story of South Africa, i really struggled to get into “I write what I like”.

But for some reason this Voices of Liberation collection of Steve’s writings has resonated so deeply with me [and i am maybe a quarter of the way in!]. Which made me want to share some of my folded page corner quotes with you.

Don’t just read through this post and think: Nice post. Each quote deserves some time and reflection. So read one and go away and then come back later or tomorrow and read the next. There is so much in here in so few words. And while some of it feels more relevant to South Africa then, the majority of it still feels too unfortunately relevant to us today. If Steve Biko were alive today i’m pretty convinced he would agree that there is much work to be done!

These truly are a selection of Quotes for Liberation:

The Surprising Quote

i posted this online the other day to see if anyone could guess who had said it. No-one came close. For me this feels quite surprising but we do know that Steve Biko had quite a religious background and an interest in the things of Christianity to a point. This feels completely profound:

‘Obedience to God in the sense that I have accepted it is in fact at the heart of the conviction of most selfless revolutionaries. It is a call to men of conscience to offer themselves and sometimes their lives for the eradication of evil.’

The Privilege of all Whites

Even just those first ten words would be enough to meditate on or run an entire conference on. While so many fly the banner of “When can we get over talking about race” or the idea that it was all finished and made right in 1994, this needs to really be got:

‘White society collectively owes the blacks so huge a debt that no one member should automatically expect to escape from the blanket of condemnation that needs must come from the black world. It is not as if whites are allowed to enjoy privilege only when they declare their solidarity with the ruling party. They are born into privilege and are nourished and nurtured in the system of ruthless exploitation of black energy.’

The quest for humanity

Again, just so much in here. Especially that last line about new forms of cultural experience that it has hitherto [what now?] ignored or devalued. White people have for too long assumed our culture is the norm and standard as is English and everything else is somehow less than… this needs to seriously change in our minds and lives:

‘Njabulo Ndebele’s powerful Steve Biko Memorial Lecture, ‘Iph’ Indlela’, places the culture of white racism, what he calls ‘the heart of whiteness’, at the centre of a biting contextualisation of Biko’s political intervention in post-apartheid South Africa. Biko’s quest for a new humanity, suggests Ndebele, has ramifications for ‘whiteness’, for the transformation of this sector of South African society so synonymous with inherited and problematic privilege. There is, he argues, a historical opportunity for the ‘heart of whiteness’ to reclaim its humanity by restoring a sense of dignity and inviolability to the black body, and by proving receptive to new forms of cultural experience it has hitherto ignored or devalued.’

Definition of Racism

i tend to call this the Academic definition of racism but seems like it is actually the Steve Biko definition, where the power to subjugate others is key. Learning this definition changed so much for me. Too often we see people on both sides of an argument holding two different understandings and definitions as to what racism is [my growing up definition was: someone who hates a person of another race – and by this definition obviously everyone can be racist!] which is hugely frustrating because often they are both right in what they are saying, but because their definitions are different they are talking completely past each other. It seldom ends well:

‘He (Biko) further argued that, as the disadvantaged and oppressed in South Africa, blacks couldn’t conceivably be accused of practising racial subjugation. In the same article, he added that blacks did not have the power to subjugate others, if racism is defined as ‘discrimination by a group against another for the purpose of subjugation or maintaining subjugation.’

And a bit later: ‘Carmichael and Hamilton define racism as ‘not merely exclusion on the basis of race but exclusion for the purpose of subjugating or maintaining subjugation’.’

So Hectic

This one begs your engagement so please don’t rush through it:

‘The Black Consciousness Movement bestowed to the 1980s a legacy of healthy non-racialism, stripped of the ‘superior-inferior white-black stratification that makes the white a perpetual teacher and the black a perpetual learner.’

[Let me pause there quick. Read that it again. Spend a moment identifying any places in your life where that feels true. Are there any? Or is this speaking to someone else?]

‘Because of the BCM, by the 1980s blacks and whites in the anti-apartheid camp had already adjusted their relationships to be more egalitarian, making it possible for Africans to draw on the resources of other groups without being fearful that others would take over leadership. Africans acquired skills, confidence, experience and attitudes necessary to get into the driver’s seat and to put whites into the backseat where as a minority they belonged. Blacks were no longer content to stand on the sidelines to watch a game they should have been playing.’

Final piece to chew

This is the part i just read and it comes from one of the articles that Stev Bike wrote under his pseudonym, Frank Talk [so good!] and this resonates with me deeply. i completely see my role in the ongoing struggle for equality to be working with other white people to try and root out the racism and prejudice that still lurks deep within us, often overtly, but too often [especially in those of us trying to be different] in more hidden and subtle ways. We need to take note of this:

‘The liberal must understand that the days of the Noble Savage are gone; that the blacks do not need a go-between in this strugle for their own emancipation. No true liberal should feel any resentment at the growth of black consciousness. Rather, all true liberals should realise thayt the place for their fight for justice is within their white society. The liberals must realise that they themselves are oppressed if they are true liberals and therefore they must fight for their own freedom and not that of the neulous ‘they’ with whom they can hardly claim identification. The liberal must apply himself with absolute dedication to the idea of educating his white brothers that the history of the country may have to be rewritten at some stage and that we may live in ‘a clountry where colour will not serve to put a man in a box’. The blacks have heard enough of this. In otr words, the liberal must serve as a lubricating material so that as we change the gears in trying to find a better direction for South Africa, there should be no grinding noises of metal against metal but a free and easy flowing movement which will be characteristic of a well-looked-after vehicle.’

[Steve Biko writing as Frank Talk]

Voices of Liberation

Do yourself a favour. Get hold of some of the books in this series. Found the Ruth Second [who i hadn’t heard of at all] and Chris Hani [knew the name and that he was assassinated but not too much else] books so helpful in terms of biography as well as exposure to some of their writings and itnerviews, and this Biko one has been best of all. What a great way to learn about some of the key significant voices and participants in the struggle for a South Africa that works for all. Am definitely going to hunt down some more of these when the lockdown is over.

But in the meantime there is so much to think about. Which of the quotes above hit you hardest or gave you something to really think about?