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I think the central theme about black society is that it has got elements of a defeated society

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
Theme
Elements
Society
Black
Think
Thinking
Defeated
Central

More quotes by Steven Biko

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The oneness of community for instance is at the heart of our culture.
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Change the way people think and things will never be the same
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This is white man's integration, an integration based on exploitative values
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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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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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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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Black Consciousness therefore takes cognizance of the deliberateness of God's plan in creating Black people black.
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A people without a positive history is like a vehicle without an engine.
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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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Being black is not a matter of pigmentation - being black is a reflection of a mental attitude.
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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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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 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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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
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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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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 most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
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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If one is free at heart, no man-made chains can bind one to servitude.
Steven Biko
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We believe in the inherent goodness of man.
Steven Biko