Jump to content

Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Steve Biko

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Steve Biko

[edit]
This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page.

The result was: scheduled for Wikipedia:Today's featured article/September 12, 2017 by Jimfbleak - talk to me? 09:49, 24 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Bantu Stephen Biko (18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977) was a South African Xhosa anti-apartheid activist. Strongly opposed to racial segregation and white-minority rule in South Africa, Biko was at the forefront of the grassroots Black Consciousness Movement during the late 1960s and 1970s. Frustrated by the domination of white liberals in the anti-apartheid movement, he became a leading figure in the creation of the South African Students' Organisation in 1968. An African nationalist and African socialist, he was influenced by Frantz Fanon and the African-American Black Power movement. Biko popularized the slogan "black is beautiful", believing that black people needed to rid themselves of any sense of racial inferiority. In 1972, he helped found the Black People's Convention to promote these ideas among the wider population. Though the government banned Biko in 1973, he remained politically active. He was arrested in August 1977, and was severely beaten by State security officers, resulting in his death. Over 20,000 people attended his funeral. Although a controversial figure, Biko became one of the earliest icons of the movement against apartheid, and is regarded as a political martyr and the "Father of Black Consciousness". (Full article...)