''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: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

activist Activism (or Advocacy) 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 greater good. Forms of activism range fr ...

Steve Biko Bantu Stephen Biko (18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977) was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he was at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign known a ...

. ''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 ''Frank Talk'' was a political magazine established in 1984 in South Africa, and arising out of the student-led anti-apartheid movement of the 1970s and 80s. History Frank Talk was originally the pseudonym under which Steve Biko wrote several ar ...

. ''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 southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

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 Afr ...

that he helped found. The collection was edited by

Aelred Stubbs Aelred Stubbs (2 August 1923 – 17 October 2004) was an Anglican priest and monk, influential in the campaign against apartheid in South Africa during the 1970s. Early life He was born Anthony Richard Peter Stubbs on 2 August 1923 and educ ...

. The book includes a preface by Archbishop

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 Archbish ...

; an introduction by Malusi and Thoko Mpumlwana, who were both involved with Biko in the

; 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
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References

1978 non-fiction books 2002 non-fiction books Books about apartheid Political books South African non-fiction books {{Apartheid-sa-book-stub