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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

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

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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
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The essence of politics is to direct oneself to the group which wields power
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In all fields black consciousness seeks to talk to the black man in a language that is his own
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If one is free at heart, no man-made chains can bind one to servitude.
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We believe in the inherent goodness of man.
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It is better to die for an idea that will live, than to live for an idea that will die.
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Being black is not a matter of pigmentation - being black is a reflection of a mental attitude.
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The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
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I think the central theme about black society is that it has got elements of a defeated society
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The oneness of community for instance is at the heart of our culture.
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Black Consciousness therefore takes cognizance of the deliberateness of God's plan in creating Black people black.
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In time, we shall be in a position to bestow on South Africa the greatest possible gift - a more human face.
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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.
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You are either alive and proud or you are dead, and when you are dead, you can't care anyway.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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Sure there are a few good whites just as much as there are a few bad Blacks. However what we are concerned here with is group attitudes and group politics. The exception does not make a lie or the rule - it merely substantiates it.
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