31 years ago today Steve Biko a anti-apartheid activist was killed while in captivity in South Africa. It was said at the time that he died because of a hunger strike, but it later came out that he died because of blows to the head and body without any medical treatment. Biko is often forgotten when martyrs are mentioned in America, but in South Africa he is Dr. King, Malcolm X, and who ever else you want to name all wrapped in one. He fought for against the apartheid system that was setup in his country where a nation of majority blacks was rules by a small minority of whites. The whites created laws that made Jim Crow laws in the south seem like jokes. Not to take anything away from any of our civil rights leaders in America, but blacks in America have always and will be a minority, where as in South Africa the whites make up a small minority who ironically rule a country of a majority black. Even tho he died at the young age of 30, nine years younger then King Or X, he did equally as much work for the blacks in South Africa as they did for blacks here in America. For blacks like Biko and Nelson Mandela if you fought the system you were jailed or even worst killed. Even whites who didn't agree with the laws of the land had to watch what they said because the government would also arrest them for treason acts against the country.

Years after Biko's death when Nelson Mandela became president of a non-apartheid South Africa, he said in his inauguration speech that he always knew that this day would come and that it would never have came to a reality without his great friend and brother Steve Biko.

God Bless Africa (Nkosi Sikeleli Africa)... A song made famous by Biko. A tribute Concert for his life in South Africa
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8iZ8jIqrQo&hl=en&fs=1]

Many people have made tributes to Biko from movies to songs. The movie Cry Freedom was written about the last days of Biko's life. Biko was played by a young Denzel Washington in this movie.

The Trailer of Cry Freedom
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDoWLcF8AOI&hl=en&fs=1]

Peter Gabriel "Biko"
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNQuJm67OzE&hl=en&fs=1]

Download: Steve Biko By Beenie Man