Quote

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

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
Going
Jail
Beat
Beats
Kill
Even

More quotes by 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
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
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
A people without a positive history is like a vehicle without an engine.
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
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
Image
The oneness of community for instance is at the heart of our culture.
Steven Biko
Image
The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
Steven Biko
Image
You are either alive and proud or you are dead, and when you are dead, you can't care anyway.
Steven Biko
Image
The essence of politics is to direct oneself to the group which wields power
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
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
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
In all fields black consciousness seeks to talk to the black man in a language that is his own
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
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 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
Image
In time, we shall be in a position to bestow on South Africa the greatest possible gift - a more human face.
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