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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

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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
Even
Going
Jail
Beat
Beats
Kill

More quotes by Steven Biko

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In all fields black consciousness seeks to talk to the black man in a language that is his own
Steven Biko
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This is white man's integration, an integration based on exploitative values
Steven Biko
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Change the way people think and things will never be the same
Steven Biko
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I am against the fact that a settler minority should impose an entire system of values on an indigenous people.
Steven Biko
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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.
Steven Biko
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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.
Steven Biko
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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.
Steven Biko
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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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If one is free at heart, no man-made chains can bind one to servitude.
Steven Biko
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Black Consciousness therefore takes cognizance of the deliberateness of God's plan in creating Black people black.
Steven Biko
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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.
Steven Biko
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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.
Steven Biko
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The logic behind white domination is to prepare the black man for the subservient role in this country.
Steven Biko
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The oneness of community for instance is at the heart of our culture.
Steven Biko
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The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
Steven Biko
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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
Steven Biko
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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.
Steven Biko
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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.
Steven Biko
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You are either alive and proud or you are dead, and when you are dead, you can't care anyway.
Steven Biko
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A people without a positive history is like a vehicle without an engine.
Steven Biko