Top 40 Steve Biko Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “Black man, you are on your own.”

— Steve Biko

2. “It is better to die for an idea that will live, than to live for an idea that will die.”

— Steve Biko

3. “I’m going to be me as I am, and you can beat me or jail me or even kill me, but I’m not going to be what you want me to be.”

— Steve Biko

4. “If one is free at heart, no man-made chains can bind one to servitude.”

— Steve Biko

5. “Change the way people think and things will never be the same.”

— Steve Biko

6. “A community is easily divide when their perception of the same thing is different.”

— Steve Biko

7. “Being black is not a matter of pigmentation – being black is a reflection of a mental attitude.”

— Steve Biko

8. “People must be aware of their problems in a realistic way. They must be able to analyse their problems and to work out common solutions. In other words a community is easily divided when their perception of the same thing is different.”

— Steve Biko

9. “The power of a movement lies in the fact that it can indeed change the habits of people. This change is not the result of force but of dedication, of moral persuasion.”

— Steve Biko

10. “I would like to remind the black ministry and indeed all black people that God is not in the habit of coming down from heaven to solve people’s problems on earth.”

— Steve Biko

11. “If you want to say something radical, you should dress conservative.”

— Steve Biko

12. “I think the central theme about black society is that it has got elements of a defeated society.”

— Steve Biko

13. “A people without a positive history is like a vehicle without an engine.”

— Steve Biko

14. “I am against the fact that a settler minority should impose an entire system of values on an indigenous people.”

— Steve Biko

15. “We believe in the inherent goodness of man.”

— Steve Biko

16. “Part of the approach envisaged in bringing about Black Consciousness has to be directed to the past, to seek to rewrite the history of the black man and to produce in it the heroes who form the core of the African background.”

— Steve Biko

17. “The greatest weapon in the hand of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”

— Steve Biko

18. “Apartheid – both petty and grand – is obviously evil. Nothing can justify the arrogant assumption that a clique of foreigners has the right to decide on the lives of a majority.”

— Steve Biko

19. “I write what I like.”

— Steve Biko

20. “The great powers of the world may have done wonders in giving the world an industrial and military look but the great gift still has to come from Africa – giving the world a more human face.”

— Steve Biko

21. “Black Consciousness therefore takes cognizance of the deliberateness of God’s plan in creating Black people black.”

— Steve Biko

22. “This is white man’s integration, an integration based on exploitative values.”

— Steve Biko

23. “In all fields black consciousness seeks to talk to the black man in a language that is his own.”

— Steve Biko

24. “Black Consciousness is in essence the realization by the black man of the need to rally together with his brothers around the cause of their oppression.”

— Steve Biko

25. “The oneness of community for instance is at the heart of our culture.”

— Steve Biko

26. “WOMEN must be at the forefront of nation-building to bring the South African citizenry together and, therefore, develop a whole new ethos of human co-existence.”

— Steve Biko

27. “We must realise that prophetic cry of black students: Black man you are on your own!”

— Steve Biko

28. “Tradition has it that whenever a group of people has tasted the lovely fruits of wealth, security and prestige it begins to find it more comfortable to believe in the obvious lie and accept that it alone is entitled to privilege.”

— Steve Biko

29. “To a large extent the evil-doers have succeeded in producing at the output end of their machine a kind of black man who is man only in form. This is the extent to which the process of dehumanization has advanced.”

— Steve Biko

30. “The logic behind white domination is to prepare the black man for the subservient role in this country.”

— Steve Biko

31. “We are experiencing new problems every day and whatever we do adds to the richness of our cultural heritage as long as it has man as its centre.”

— Steve Biko

32. “The system concedes nothing without demand, for it formulates its very method of operation on the basis that the ignorant will learn to know, the child will grow into an adult and therefore demands will begin to be made. It gears itself to resist demands in whatever way it sees fit.”

— Steve Biko

33. “The essence of politics is to direct oneself to the group which wields power.”

— Steve Biko

34. “The wealth of the country must eventually be enjoyed by people of the country.”

— Steve Biko

35. “Apartheid – both petty and grand – is obviously evil.”

— Steve Biko

36. “Sure there are a few good whites just as much as there are a few bad Blacks. However what we are concerned here with is group attitudes and group politics. The exception does not make a lie or the rule – it merely substantiates it.”

— Steve Biko

37. “The blacks are tired of standing at the touchlines to witness a game that they should be playing. They want to do things for themselves and all by themselves.”

— Steve Biko

38. “In time, we shall be in a position to bestow on South Africa the greatest possible gift – a more human face.”

— Steve Biko

39. “We believe it is the duty of the vanguard political movement which brings change to educate people’s outlook.”

— Steve Biko

40. “Instead of involving themselves in an all-out attempt to stamp out racism from their white society, liberals waste a lot of time trying to prove to as many blacks as they can find that they are liberal.”

— Steve Biko

41. “Any warning normally implies, even if it is tacit, that there should be changes.”

— Steve Biko

42. “We regard our living together not as an unfortunate mishap warranting endless competition among us but as a deliberate act of God to make us a community of brothers and sisters jointly involved in the quest for a composite answer to the varied problems of life. Hence in all we do we always place man first and hence all our action is usually joint community oriented action rather than the individualism.” – Steven Biko.”

— Steve Biko

43. “You are either alive and proud or you are dead, and when you are dead, you can’t care anyway.”

— Steve Biko

44. “No group, however benevolent, can ever hand power to the vanquished on a plate.”

— Steve Biko