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The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.

A Black man should be more independent and depend on himself for his freedom and not to take it for granted that someone would lead him to it. 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.

From Steven Biko

Black Consciousness is an attitude of the mind and a way of life, the most positive call to emanate from the black world for a long time.

From Steven Biko

Merely by describing yourself as black you have started on a road towards emancipation, you have committed yourself to fight against all forces that seek to use your blackness as a stamp that marks you out as a subservient being.

From Steven Biko

Being black is not a matter of pigmentation - being black is a reflection of a mental attitude.

From Steven Biko

Black man, you are on your own.

From Steven Biko

In a bid for change, we have to take off our coats, be prepared to lose our comfort and security, our jobs and positions of prestige, and our families... A struggle without casualties is no struggle.

From Steven Biko

The black man has become a shell, a shadow of man, completely defeated, drowning in his own misery, a slave, an ox bearing the yoke of oppression with sheepish timidity.

From Steven Biko

We are concerned with that curious bunch of nonconformists who explain their participation in negative terms: that bunch of do-gooders that goes under all sorts of names - liberals, leftists, etc. These are the people who argue that they are not responsible for white racism and the country's 'inhumanity to the black man.'

From Steven Biko

It becomes more necessary to see the truth as it is if you realize that the only vehicle for change are these people who have lost their personality.

From Steven Biko

Steven Biko

Notable Quotes

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