Steve Biko, the South African liberation struggle hero who considered dishonor worse than death

What happens when death becomes the ultimate marker of one’s commitment to one’s freedom? Jacob Dlamini explores this and other questions in his new book, Dying for Freedom: Political Martyrdom in South Africa. This edited extract, from the chapter Dead and Proud, focuses on Steve Biko’s attitude to martyrdom and to the political uses of death (30). Steve Biko’s death on 12 September 1977 generated arguably the most significant hagiography and iconography to come out of the struggle against apartheid. Artist Paul Stopforth was among the first to respond critically to the murder, producing a collection titled the Biko Series. Stopforth reworked the forensic photographs from Biko’s autopsy to show not just the brutality to which Biko was subjected by his killers but, significantly, the manner in which they inadvertently made the killing look like a crucifixion. In his book, No One To Blame?, about deaths in police custody in South Africa, human rights lawyer George Bizos titled the chapter on Biko “The passion of Steve Biko”. Bizos was not the only one to see Biko’s death in terms of Christian notions of sacrifice. Reacting to the death of her husband, Ntsiki Biko said: I think Steve expected to die...