''I Write What I Like'' (full name ''I Write What I Like: Selected Writings by Steve Biko'') is a compilation of writings from anti-
apartheid
Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
activist
Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate build ...
Steve Biko
Bantu Stephen Biko Order for Meritorious Service, OMSG (18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977) was a South African internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalism, African nationalist and ...
.
''I Write What I Like'' contains a selection of Biko's writings from 1969, when he became the president of the
South African Student Organisation, to 1972, when he was prohibited from publishing. Originally published in 1978, the book was republished in 1987 and April 2002. The book's title was taken from the title under which he had published his writings in the SASO newsletter under the pseudonym
Frank Talk.
''I Write What I Like'' reflects Biko's conviction that black people in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
could not be liberated until they united to break their chains of servitude, a key tenet of the
Black Consciousness Movement
The Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) was a grassroots anti-apartheid activist movement that emerged in South Africa in the mid-1960s out of the political vacuum created by the jailing and banning of the African National Congress and Pan Af ...
that he helped found.
The collection was edited by
Aelred Stubbs. The book includes a preface by
Archbishop
In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu (7 October 193126 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop ...
; an introduction by
Malusi and Thoko Mpumlwana, who were both involved with Biko in the
Black Consciousness Movement
The Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) was a grassroots anti-apartheid activist movement that emerged in South Africa in the mid-1960s out of the political vacuum created by the jailing and banning of the African National Congress and Pan Af ...
; a memoir of Biko by Father Aelred Stubbs, his longtime pastor and friend; and a new foreword by Professor
Lewis Gordon
Lewis Ricardo Gordon (born May 12, 1962) is an American philosopher at the University of Connecticut who works in the areas of Africana philosophy, existentialism, phenomenology, social and political theory, postcolonial thought, theories of r ...
.
The introduction is online at the Abahlali baseMjondolo website
/ref>
References
1978 non-fiction books
2002 non-fiction books
Books about apartheid
Political books
South African non-fiction books
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