Mail & Guardian: Biko book takes a few liberties

The canon of books on Steve Biko, South Africa’s brutally assassinated Black Consciousness Movement leader, continues to grow 40 years after his death.

Biko's Ghost (Shannen Hill)The canon of books on Steve Biko, South Africa’s brutally assassinated Black Consciousness Movement leader, continues to grow 40 years after his death.

Shannen L Hill’s Biko’s Ghost: The Iconography of Black Consciousness is perhaps most distinctive in that it forces us to view Biko as something other than a eulogised and romanticised figure but rather one who, even four decades after he was beaten to death by security police officers, continues to shape the visual and verbal discourse about the aesthetics and meaning of Black Consciousness (BC).

Hill writes that, for the South African Students’ Organisation (Saso), which Biko cofounded, cultural work was an immediately important vehicle to propel BC ideals.

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Published in: Mail & Guardian
By: Kwanele Sosibo