i finally finished reading the Voices of Liberation series book on Steve Biko by Derek Hook. And i can highly recommend it. i honestly believe that if you are a South African [especially if you are white] then you really need to read 'How can man die better?' [by Benjamin Pogrund] which is the story of Robert Sobukwe, and either one of 'I write what I like' or this version of Biko's writings and [...]
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 [...]
So recently i finished reading the book, 'Biko: A Biography' by Xolela Mangcu It is not often that you get to hang out with the guy who authored the book you are reading [unless you have bought my book, 'i, church' and then hang out with me over an ice cold board game, of course] but this is how that happened. tbV and i had been invited to a friend's house for a meal and [...]
Continuing the ‘Race with Me’ video series i take a look at one thing that has been super helpful for me in terms of learning and growing and becoming better prepared for conversations about race and knowing that changes i need to make in my own life. If you have asked the question, “What can I do?’ in terms of race vibes, this is a very good place to start. For more [...]
If this last week was the first time you ever did anything in terms of protest then THAT IS AMAZING. Well done. Good for you. That's really great. At the same time it is very possible that it also sucks that it took you so long. i fall into that category. For the last two and a half years i have been going on about this stuff in terms of writing and engaging with people [...]
A while back i shared a number of passages from the Steve Biko book: I Write What I Want. Which are all well worth checking out, as is the whole book if you get the chance. i found one more i would like to share with you which is an example of Steve’s conduct while under hostile examination as well as his ‘perceptive understanding of the difference of black and white uses of language’. This comes [...]
i love to read. i was challenged a couple of years ago by the idea of diversifying the voices that i invited to speak into my life. For me that related mostly to books as i don’t tend to find the time slash bandwidth to do much podcast listening, but it would apply to both. […]
This is a hard but necessary passage to share from Steve Biko's 'I Write What I Like' which you should totally get hold of and read in its entirety. Hard, because it is true. Not true that the black man is inferior, but that the idea of the black man being inferior has been so deeply entrenched in so many of us, that it is an extremely hard and horrible thing to admit to when [...]
Another passage from the chapter titled 'Some African Cultural Concepts': 'Yet it is difficult to kill the African heritage. There remains, in spite of the superficial cultural similarities between the detribalised and the Westerner, a number of cultural characteristics that mark out the detribalised as an African. I am not here making a case for separation on the basis of cultural differences. I am sufficiently proud to believe that under a normal situation, Africans can [...]
i am still slowly making my way through Steve Biko's 'I write what I like' and here is a passage that i marked a while ago from Chapter 8: Some African Cultural Concepts: One of the most fundamental aspects of our culture is the importance we attach to Man [by which i think he is referring to people as opposed to individual - brett] . Ours has always been a Man-centered society. Westerners have on [...]
