Steve Biko
Colossians 1:15-20 (NIV)
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
In my early twenties I spent some time in Durban, South Africa where I was introduced to the figure of Steve Biko. Biko was an anti-apartheid campaigner. He was a leading figure in the Black Consciousness movement. Reading Biko’s writings opened my eyes to the way that Christianity had been weaponised by an oppressive group.
Biko saw the dire state of the black community of South Africa. He wrote, ‘material want is bad enough, but coupled with spiritual poverty it kills.’ (I Write What I Like. 1987) It wasn’t merely being deprived of material possessions that crippled the black community; it was that they could not even cry to God because he belonged to the white man. Biko saw Black Consciousness as the means to rescue Christianity from being an imposed white religion. He saw it as the only way to rescue the black community from feeling like God’s unwanted step-children. It was this theology, reclaiming God’s purposeful and beautiful design for black people, insisting that ‘black is beautiful’ that led to Biko being arrested and beaten to death in his prison cell.
I always experience a strange disconnect, reading and writing about Steve Biko. My life as a white European woman could not be further from his. Ever since I first heard about him I have admired his bravery and his depth of understanding of the theological causes behind the Apartheid regime. The main lesson I have drawn from reading his writings is to look below the surface of day-to-day oppression.
One of Biko’s famous phrases was, ‘It is better to die for an idea that will live, than to live for an idea that will die.’ (I Write What I Like) What idea do you live for? Or perhaps, what idea are you willing to die for? The idea, the great story of God’s redemptive plan for all people through Jesus is an idea we can cling to. It is better to die for this eternal idea than to live for the vacuous and temporary ideas of this world.
Prayer — Dear God, I’m sorry for when I try to make you in my own image. Help me notice injustice and give me the courage to speak your truth. I want to live my life for you.