Quote

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

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
Fight
Describing
Started
Forces
Fighting
Towards
Subservient
Force
Committed
Blackness
Use
Merely
Stamp
Black
Road
Emancipation
Mark
Stamps
Seek
Marks

More quotes by 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
It is better to die for an idea that will live, than to live for an idea that will die.
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
The essence of politics is to direct oneself to the group which wields power
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
If one is free at heart, no man-made chains can bind one to servitude.
Steven Biko
Image
Tradition has it that whenever a group of people has tasted the lovely fruits of wealth, security and prestige it begins to find it more comfortable to believe in the obvious lie and accept that it alone is entitled to privilege.
Steven Biko
Image
In all fields black consciousness seeks to talk to the black man in a language that is his own
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
Being black is not a matter of pigmentation - being black is a reflection of a mental attitude.
Steven Biko
Image
The logic behind white domination is to prepare the black man for the subservient role in this country.
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
A community is easily divide when their perception of the same thing is different
Steven Biko
Image
I would like to remind the black ministry and indeed all black people that God is not in the habit of coming down from heaven to solve people's problems on earth.
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
Any warning normally implies, even if it is tacit, that there should be changes
Steven Biko
Image
Change the way people think and things will never be the same
Steven Biko
Image
A people without a positive history is like a vehicle without an engine.
Steven Biko
Image
Black Consciousness therefore takes cognizance of the deliberateness of God's plan in creating Black people black.
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