Why They Killed Steve Biko | The Truth EXPOSED

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]They feared Steve Biko more than guns, more than protests, more than riots because Steve Biko understood something dangerous.

[00:00:09]If you free the mind of an oppressed people, you become impossible to control.

[00:00:15]And that is why apartheid South Africa wanted him silenced forever.

[00:00:24]Welcome to Africa Rise, where we uncover the untold truths of African history.

[00:00:31]Today, we explore the life, philosophy, and assassination of one of Africa's most powerful revolutionary thinkers, Steve Biko.

[00:00:41]Not because he carried weapons, but because he carried ideas, and ideas can threaten entire systems.

[00:00:48]Changes which are to come can only come as a result of a program worked out by a black people.

[00:00:56]And for black people to be able to work out a program, they need to defeat the one main element in politics which was working against them.

[00:01:06]And this was the psychological feeling of inferiority.

[00:01:12]Steve Biko was born in 1946 in South Africa during the brutal years of apartheid.

[00:01:19]At the time, black South Africans were treated as second-class citizens in their own land.

[00:01:26]They were controlled politically, economically, socially, and psychologically.

[00:01:32]But Biko realized something many people did not fully understand.

[00:01:37]Apartheid was not only controlling black bodies, it was controlling black minds.

[00:01:44]That is why he created the black consciousness movement. So then in '68, we started forming what is now called SASO, the South African Students' Organization, which was firmly based on black consciousness, the essence of which was for the black man to elevate his own position by positively looking at those value systems uh that make him distinctively a man in society. First of all, we said as black students, we could not participate in multi-racial organizations which were by far white organizations because in this country there is an overwhelming number of uh white students at university.

[00:02:24]Secondly, these organizations were concentrating mainly on problems which were affecting the white student community.

[00:02:32]Which meant that NUSAS as an organization gave political opinions which were largely affected by the whiteness of that particular organization.

[00:02:42]Its message was simple but revolutionary.

[00:02:45]Black people must reject the idea that they are inferior.

[00:02:49]They must stop seeking validation from the same system oppressing them.

[00:02:54]Biko once said, "The greatest weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed."

[00:03:00]We are so far away from a decolonized Africa, from a free Africa.

[00:03:05]And in 1994, South Africa was touted as the miracle nation.

[00:03:11]Today, we are the most unequal nation in the world and it's because people that look like me keep holding on to the means of production. We own the land. We own the narrative, which is something we don't speak about enough.

[00:03:24]Political freedom without economic freedom is meaningless and it is incomplete. That's why we want economic freedom to complete what those delegates who came here in 1955 said they'll achieve in their lifetime.

[00:03:42]Comrades, we must make sure that our freedom does not discriminate on the basis of color, race, sex, or belief.

[00:03:54]And therefore, um but what we've what's happened, to be honest in my reading and the the greatest author in the world to me and greatest activist, was Steve Bantu Biko, who was of course assassinated by the white um regime. He had to be because his ideology was so potent that it would have had would have destroyed the white supremacist attitude that still governs South Africa today.

[00:04:21]And um he was saying the greatest tool in the the the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. And I'm afraid to say, and I do not mean to insult South Africans, but we have got colonization and the myth of white um in uh superiority is so entrenched, particularly in the older generation.

[00:04:44]And that sentence terrified the apartheid government. Because once people stop fearing oppression mentally, physical control becomes much harder.

[00:04:55]Steve Biko encouraged black pride, self-reliance, African identity, and psychological liberation. He inspired students, workers, churches, and young activists across South Africa.

[00:05:10]The apartheid government began to see him as a major threat.

[00:05:14]Not because he led an army, but because he was awakening millions psychologically.

[00:05:20]Soon he was banned by the government.

[00:05:23]He could not speak publicly. He could not travel freely.

[00:05:27]He could not even meet with more than one person at a time.

[00:05:31]But even under restrictions, his influence kept growing.

[00:05:36]Then came September 1977.

[00:05:39]Steve Biko was arrested by South African security police. During interrogation, he was brutally beaten and tortured.

[00:05:45][clears throat] Reports later showed he suffered severe brain injuries. Instead of taking him to a proper hospital immediately, police transported him naked in the back of a vehicle for over 1,000 km.

[00:05:59]On September 12th, 1977, Steve Biko died in police custody at just 30 years old.

[00:06:07]The apartheid regime claimed he died from a hunger strike, but the truth eventually emerged.

[00:06:14]Steve Biko was killed by the system he challenged.

[00:06:22]And this is exactly why understanding systems matters, because oppression is not only physical, it is psychological, political, and institutional.

[00:06:32]That is why I wrote my book, decolonize African Institutions by Kelvin Jassy, available now on Amazon.

[00:06:42]Link in the description below.

[00:06:46]They killed Steve Biko hoping to silence him, but some voices become louder after death.

[00:06:53]Today, Steve Biko remains one of Africa's greatest symbols of resistance, dignity, and mental liberation.

[00:07:01]Because true freedom begins in the mind, and once a people stop believing they are inferior, history changes forever.

[00:07:10]This is Africa arise. Like, subscribe, and share.

[00:07:15]Because African history must never be forgotten.

[00:07:18]>> [clears throat]