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Witness History

Steve Biko: Black Consciousness Leader

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.51.6K Ratings

🗓️ 25 September 2017

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The anti-apartheid activist was buried on September 25th 1977. He had died in police custody just two weeks earlier. Thousands of people attended the funeral. Alex Last spoke to one of the early members of the Black Consciousness movement, Mamphela Ramphele who had a relationship with Steve Biko.

Photo: Anti-apartheid activist attending the burial ceremony of Steve Biko, October 1977. (Photo credit STF/AFP/GettyImages)

Transcript

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0:00.0

Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless

0:06.8

searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the

0:11.8

telly we share what we've been watching

0:14.0

Cladie Aide.

0:16.0

Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.

0:19.0

Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.

0:21.0

And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less searching

0:25.7

and a lot more watching. Listen on BBC Sounds.

0:29.2

Hello and thank you for downloading the Witness Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Alex

0:35.2

Last.

0:36.2

And today we remember the South African anti-apartite activist and Black Consciousness Leader

0:41.5

Steve Biko, who was killed in police custody in September

0:45.6

1977. In 2014, I spoke to fellow activist Manpele-Res, about her relationship with Biko.

0:54.4

On Fridays after lectures, we come together in one of our rooms in the residence. It was an

1:07.0

old military barracks but we turned it into a hotbed of activism.

1:14.0

Mampela Rampale was a medical student at the segregated University of Natal in South Africa.

1:21.0

You'd sit down, we'll drink cheap wine or beer and talk right into the early hours of the following day.

1:28.2

A lot of sense was spoken, a lot of nonsense was spoken, a lot of nonsense was spoken, a lot of

1:32.3

dancing was head.

1:34.0

That network of friends became the core network for the Black Consciousness Movement.

1:45.0

We would spread across the country and go and spend a weekend in this campus,

1:52.0

a week in that campus, a week in that campus.

...

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