Word: biko
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Steve Biko, Woods concludes, was killed by all who permit the system of apartheid to continue, by all who continue to profit from that system, Biko closes with a call to arms...
Help to finish the work of Steve Biko. Help to smash the remaining links of the chains he broke, and let the sound of this work echo around the world so that chains may be broken wherever they hold in bondage the bodies and minds...
When he met Biko, however, Woods was forced to reevaluate his position once again; Biko seems to have shown him what apartheid really meant to South African blacks. Even so, the shock that Woods conveys in Biko suggests that it was not until his friend died in detention that Woods was fully aware of the brutality of the South African regime. When Woods himself was placed under virtual house arrest and prohibited from writing--prohibited, that is, from earning a living in the only way he knew--the last vestige of legitimacy was stripped from the government...
South Africa has always touted its legality and its press freedom, as if a system of injustice that is conducted with due process, and that allows a press to scream at abuses within the system, is less evil. But Biko and Woods's experiences together served as final proof for Woods that South Africa's white minority would not give up its privileges without a bitter fight. If he once believed liberal white South Africans could act as a voice of reason within the country, he does so no longer. The story of Woods's escape is too well known...
International sanctions, such as corporate withdrawal from South Africa, may hurt South African blacks temporarily. But as Biko once said in response to that objection. South African blacks are used to suffering, and temporary damage would be worth it if the result was the end of apartheid. At 30, Stephen Biko became another martyr for the liberation struggle. It is hard to believe that, so long as apartheid continues to impose injustice daily on the people of South Africa, there will not be many more, dying in jail cells and on the streets, so that their children can walk tall...