Steven Biko Quotes

Merely by describing yourself as black you have started on a road towards emancipation, you have committed yourself to fight against all forces that seek to use your blackness as a stamp that marks you out as a subservient being.

Black Consciousness is an attitude of the mind and a way of life, the most positive call to emanate from the black world for a long time.

I am against the fact that a settler minority should impose an entire system of values on an indigenous people.

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

In time, we shall be in a position to bestow on South Africa the greatest possible gift - a more human face.

We believe it is the duty of the vanguard political movement which brings change to educate people's outlook

The wealth of the country must eventually be enjoyed by people of the country

A Black man should be more independent and depend on himself for his freedom and not to take it for granted that someone would lead him to it. The blacks are tired of standing at the touchlines to witness a game that they should be playing. They want to do things for themselves and all by themselves.

Black Consciousness seeks to infuse the black community with a new-found pride in themselves, their efforts, their value systems, their culture, their religion and their outlook to life.

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.

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

Apartheid - both petty and grand - is obviously evil

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.

Tradition has it that whenever a group of people has tasted the lovely fruits of wealth, security and prestige it begins to find it more comfortable to believe in the obvious lie and accept that it alone is entitled to privilege.

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

We are experiencing new problems every day and whatever we do adds to the richness of our cultural heritage as long as it has man as its centre

The oneness of community for instance is at the heart of our culture.

Being black is not a matter of pigmentation - being black is a reflection of a mental attitude.

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.

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.

This is white man's integration, an integration based on exploitative values

We do not want to be reminded that it is we, the indigenous people, who are poor and exploited in the land of our birth. These are concepts which the Black Consciousness approach wishes to eradicate from the black man's mind before our society is driven to chaos by irresponsible people from Coca-cola and hamburger cultural backgrounds.

The black man has become a shell, a shadow of man, completely defeated, drowning in his own misery, a slave, an ox bearing the yoke of oppression with sheepish timidity.

We must realise that prophetic cry of black students: Black man you are on your own!

The essence of politics is to direct oneself to the group which wields power

Black man, you are on your own.