South African president laments lingering racism in Biko tribute
CAPE TOWN (AFP) — South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki lamented lingering racism and black submissiveness on Wednesday in paying tribute to black consciousness leader Steve Biko, killed by apartheid police 30 years ago.
The challenge Biko had lain down to black people, to reclaim their dignity, had not lost its relevance since South Africa's whites-only rule ended 13 years ago, the president told a Steve Biko memorial lecture in Cape Town.
"I speak here of the challenge to defeat the centuries-old attempt to ... treat us as children, to define us as sub-humans whom nature has condemned to be inferior to white people, an animal-like species characterised by limited intellectual capacity, bestiality, lasciviousness and moral depravity."
There was a need to critically examine society today, said Mbeki.
"We must ask ourselves whether the majority of our people, for whose freedom Steve Biko sacrificed his life, are truly aware that they too are people and whether they do not still regard themselves as appendages of our self-appointed superiors.
"Has the majority taken advantage of its victory in 1994 to repudiate the practice of resorting to forced gestures of friendship it does not desire?"
A series of events were held around the country in recent days to mark the 30th anniversary of Biko's death at the age of 31.
The black consciousness activist was arrested by security forces on August 18, 1977 and jailed in the coastal city of Port Elizabeth.
He was transferred to the capital Pretoria on September 11, and was found dead in his cell the following day.
Authorities said he died after going on a hunger strike, but newspaper investigations revealed he had died of brain injuries. International sanctions were imposed against South Africa's apartheid regime shortly thereafter.
Mbeki expressed concern about violent crime and corruption, fuelled by a drive for personal enrichment, asking whether this is the kind of South Africa Biko would have fought for.
Dignitaries present at the memorial lecture included Zambia's founding leader Kenneth Kaunda, former Mozambican President Joachim Chissano and former Ghanaian leader Jerry Rawlings.
