Short Papers Series on Education Policy April / May 2016 As a pluralist domestic public policy institute, ASRI commissions papers from a range of perspectives to contribute to the public discourse, and foster discussion and debate around socio-economic policy. Statements, opinions and data contained in these publications are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and not necessarily those of ASRI, the publisher and the editor(s). Feedback:
[email protected] The Life of Steve Bantu Biko by South African History Online This article was published on South African History OnlineSouth African History online (SAHO) is a non-partisan people’s history institution. It was established in June 2000 as a non-profit Section 21 organisation, to address the biased way in which South Africa’s history and heritage, as well as the history and heritage of Africa is represented in educational and cultural institutions. Abstract The article is a biography and tribute to Stephen (Steve) Bantu Biko who although was not alone in forging the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM); was nevertheless its most prominent leader, who with others guided the movement of student discontent into a political force unprecedented in the history of South Africa. Biko and his peers were responding to developments that emerged in the high phase of apartheid, when the Nationalist Party (NP), in power for almost two decades, was restructuring the country to conform to its policies of separate development. The NP went about untangling what little pockets of integration and proximity there were between White, Black, Coloured and Indian South Africans, by creating new residential areas, new parallel institutions such as schools, universities and administrative bodies, and indeed, new ‘countries’, the tribal homelands.