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The basic tenet of black consciousness is that the black man must reject all value systems that seek to make him a foreigner in the country of his birth and reduce his basic human dignity.

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
Country
Seek
Foreigner
Must
Birth
Foreigners
Make
Value
Reject
Men
Consciousness
Reduce
Values
Rejects
Black
Systems
Human
Basic
Humans
Dignity
Tenet

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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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In all fields black consciousness seeks to talk to the black man in a language that is his own
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Change the way people think and things will never be the same
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The oneness of community for instance is at the heart of our culture.
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The essence of politics is to direct oneself to the group which wields power
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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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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
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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 most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
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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 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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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.
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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.
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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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If one is free at heart, no man-made chains can bind one to servitude.
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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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The logic behind white domination is to prepare the black man for the subservient role in this country.
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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 think the central theme about black society is that it has got elements of a defeated society
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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.
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