Category Archives: Steve Biko
We Need to Move beyond Mngxitama’s Gutter Politics
Tuesday, 26 March 2013
Unemployed People’s Movement Press Statement
We Need to Move beyond Mngxitama’s Gutter Politics
Andile Mngxitama has become notorious for trying to privatize the memory of Steve Biko. He is not the only person trying to privatize that legacy, which is a legacy that must be there for all of us. But he is the only one that uses gutter politics to defend his privatization of Biko’s legacy.
They way that Mngxitama insults people is just incredible. If you are not a loyal follower of the Big Man then you are a CIA agent, an askari or a house nigger. He even called one comrade in the Landless People’s Movement a CIA agent while she was being tortured by the police! He has insulted so many young black activists and writers. He has used highly gendered language in these insults too. This is gutter politics. This is not the politics of BC. Aubrey Mokoape always makes the point about the humility of Biko. We learnt to reject the politics of sectarianism in BC during the feud, during hard times. Even when BC was under siege they still put forward ideas. The seminars that were organised across the country in those days were organised to debate ideas, not to attack individuals. Continue reading
Remembering Steve Biko: a Bright & Guiding Light in Dark Times
Address by Bishop Rubin Phillip, Anglican Bishop of Natal(KZN) – at St Philip’s Anglican Church, Fingo Village in Grahamstown, 19th September, 2012.
Remembering Steve Biko: a Bright & Guiding Light in Dark Times
As the Unemployed People's Movement have noted we gather here in Grahamstown to honour the memory of Steve Biko, a man who was indeed a bright and guiding light, at a moment when a dark night is settling over our country. As the light of our democratic dawn dims we all have to look inward and find our courage, individually and collectively, for the struggles ahead. Make no mistake – the massacre at Marikana was a turning point and the path ahead will be difficult and will require real courage.
Remembering Biko: A bright and guiding light in dark times
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Tuesday, 18 September 2012
Unemployed People’s Movement Press Statement
Remembering Biko: A bright and guiding light in dark times
Commemoration from 12 noon on Wednesday 19 September 2012
Steve Biko was murdered by the apartheid state on 12 September 2012. Today state murder stalks our land once again. In these dark times we will gather to honour the memory of Steve Biko – a memory that is a shining light.
We plan to retrace the route that Biko and his comrades took when they walked out of the NUSAS meeting at Rhodes University in 1967. We will walk from the campus to the church where they slept that night. We will carry 36 candles – one for each of the striking miners murdered by the state at Marikana.
We will be addressed by Aubrey Mokoape (former leader in SASO and the BPC), Bishop Rubin Phillip (former Deputy-President of SASO), Barney Pityana (former President of SASO and BCP) Richard Pithouse (activist in contemporary struggles) and Pauline Wynter (radical ecologist and lifelong activist who currently works with the Steve Biko centre in Brazil). The programme will commence at 12 noon on Wednesday 19 September 2012. We will gather under the arch at the entrance to Rhodes University and then proceed to Saint Phillip’s Church in Fingo Village.
All people that wish to honour the memory of Biko are most welcome to attend.
For further information please contact:
Asanda Ncwadi (UPM chairperson): 071 010 5441
Ayanda Kota (UPM spokesperson): 078 625 6462
Siyanda Centwa (UPM activist): 078 571 5507