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Wednesday February 22, 2006

Song of the Day ... in Music

Biko While in custody of the Eastern Cape security police in Port Elizabeth, Stephen Bantu (Steve) Biko sustained a head injury during interrogation. Doctors examined him as he lay naked on a mat and manacled to a metal grille. Eventually he slipped into a continual, semi-conscious state. A transfer to hospital was recommended. Biko was transported, lying in the back of a Land Rover, to Pretoria – a 1,200 km to journey that took 12 hours.

On 12 September, Steve Biko died from brain damage. Alone and lying naked on a cell floor the Pretoria Central Prison.

"The Commission finds that the death in detention of Mr Stephen Bantu Biko on 12 September 1977 was a gross human rights violation. Magistrate Marthinus Prins found that the members of the SAP were not implicated in his death. The magistrate's finding contributed to the creation of a culture of impunity in the SAP. Despite the inquest finding no person responsible for his death, the Commission finds that, in view of the fact that Biko died in the custody of law enforcement officials, the probabilities are that he died as a result of injuries sustained during his detention."

Nelson Mandela said this during his address at 20th Anniversary of Steve Biko's Death:
"History called upon Steve Biko at a time when the political pulse of our people had been rendered faint by banning, imprisonment, exile, murder and banishment. Repression had swept the country clear of all visible organisation of the people. But at each turn of history, apartheid was bound to spawn resistance; it was destined to bring to life the forces that would guarantee its death."

The Song of the Day is, of course, Peter Gabriel's "Biko."

"September '77
Port Elizabeth weather fine
It was business as usual
In police room 619
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja
-The man is dead

When I try to sleep at night
I can only dream in red
The outside world is black and white
With only one colour dead
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja
-The man is dead

You can blow out a candle
But you can't blow out a fire
Once the flames begin to catch
The wind will blow it higher
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja
-The man is dead

And the eyes of the world are
watching now ..."