I spent the whole weekend in Ginsberg, Bantu Biko’s township, on what I will call a pilgrimage. I left Polokwane on Friday, September 9 2022 and returned on Monday. This to mark the 45th anniversary of the cruel and brutal murder of Biko by the settler-colonial regime in September 1977.
On Saturday, we slaughtered two cows, courtesy of Azapo, at the Biko family home, which is now a heritage site. We communed and reminisced with the family, relatives and the community of Ginsberg. It brought back memories of us as young political activists, possessed as we were by youthful idealism and fervent patriotism, frequenting the Biko home to consult with him, especially when he was placed under banning orders.
Sunday, September 11, started with a procession to the graveyard where Biko’s mother is buried. She was the matriarch who welcomed all of us into her home and fed us. It looked then as though in her house the pot was continuously on the stove.
The procession proceeded to the Steve Biko Garden of Remembrance where Biko’s remains are interred. Wreaths were laid by different personalities amid much singing and stomping of feet.
We then moved to the magnificent Steve Bantu Biko Centre for an Azapo rally to which four other political parties, trade unions and civil society organisations were invited. It was a spirited and emotional affair.
The symbolism of all those organisations meeting at the Bantu Biko Centre to remember him could not escape some of us. It would be remembered that he was arrested in Makhanda on his way from Cape Town on a mission to unite the liberation movements for the purposes of ridding our country of oppression. To behold such a coming together of various political and non-governmental organisations seemed to affirm his unifying spirit in both life and death.
More tellingly, all in the rally were of one voice in decrying the perilous state of our republic. They observed with horror the degeneration of the condition of the vast majority of our people in almost all spheres of public life: public education, health, roads, refuse removal, crime, poverty, joblessness, landlessness, immigration management, etc. The political consciousness and solidarity that defined Biko’s life and work have been replaced by crass materialism and conspicuous consumption of the vilest variety.
More uplifting was the expressed notion by many speakers that South Africa does not belong to a political party, leader or section of the population, but to us, the citizens; that it is the duty of all patriots to band together and prevent our country from falling down the cliff and plunging us into a state of despair.
At the end of the rally, a lot of people were journeying to Gqeberha in preparation for the visit to the cell in which he was detained and tortured at Walmer Police Station, the following morning on September 12, the day of his death.
In the evening they would be joined by others to listen to a Steve Biko Memorial Lecture by Prof Jeanine Ntihirageza at the Nelson Mandela University. Ntihirageza, although based in the US, is Burundian, having fled her country due to the Tutsi-Huti conflict that saw her father murdered. So, she deeply understands the pain of oppression and inhumanity of human beings against others.
I returned back home encouraged by the attitude of the citizens of South Africa to stand up for their country. I have seen the same determination when I attended meetings and the conference of the Defend Our Democracy on July 1-2 this year.
I can only say: Let’s push on.
- Mangena is former minister of science and technology
- Mosibudi Mangena
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