Quote

Being black is not a matter of pigmentation - being black is a reflection of a mental attitude.

Steven Biko

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Steven Biko
Age: 30 †
Born: 1946
Born: December 18
Died: 1977
Died: September 12
Activist
Civil Rights Advocate
Politician
Trade Unionist
Writer
Amsterdam
Netherlands
Bantu Stephen Biko
Matter
Pigmentation
Pigment
Reflection
Mental
Attitude
Black

More quotes by Steven Biko

Image
The system concedes nothing without demand, for it formulates its very method of operation on the basis that the ignorant will learn to know, the child will grow into an adult and therefore demands will begin to be made. It gears itself to resist demands in whatever way it sees fit.
Steven Biko
Image
It becomes more necessary to see the truth as it is if you realize that the only vehicle for change are these people who have lost their personality.
Steven Biko
Image
The logic behind white domination is to prepare the black man for the subservient role in this country.
Steven Biko
Image
This is white man's integration, an integration based on exploitative values
Steven Biko
Image
Any warning normally implies, even if it is tacit, that there should be changes
Steven Biko
Image
I am against the fact that a settler minority should impose an entire system of values on an indigenous people.
Steven Biko
Image
The oneness of community for instance is at the heart of our culture.
Steven Biko
Image
If one is free at heart, no man-made chains can bind one to servitude.
Steven Biko
Image
What Black Consciousness seeks to do is to produce real black people who do not regard themselves as appendages to white society. We do not need to apologise for this because it is true that the white systems have produced through the world a number of people who are not aware that they too are people.
Steven Biko
Image
We are experiencing new problems every day and whatever we do adds to the richness of our cultural heritage as long as it has man as its centre
Steven Biko
Image
Merely by describing yourself as black you have started on a road towards emancipation, you have committed yourself to fight against all forces that seek to use your blackness as a stamp that marks you out as a subservient being.
Steven Biko
Image
WOMEN must be at the forefront of nation-building to bring the South African citizenry together and, therefore, develop a whole new ethos of human co-existence
Steven Biko
Image
I think the central theme about black society is that it has got elements of a defeated society
Steven Biko
Image
The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
Steven Biko
Image
The great powers of the world may have done wonders in giving the world an industrial and military look but the great gift still has to come from Africa - giving the world a more human face.
Steven Biko
Image
Black Consciousness is in essence the realization by the black man of the need to rally together with his brothers around the cause of their oppression.
Steven Biko
Image
We believe in the inherent goodness of man.
Steven Biko
Image
To a large extent the evil-doers have succeeded in producing at the output end of their machine a kind of black man who is man only in form. This is the extent to which the process of dehumanization has advanced.
Steven Biko
Image
I'm going to be me as I am, and you can beat me or jail me or even kill me, but I'm not going to be what you want me to be.
Steven Biko
Image
Part of the approach envisaged in bringing about Black Consciousness has to be directed to the past, to seek to rewrite the history of the black man and to produce in it the heroes who form the core of the African background
Steven Biko