Exploring black consciousness
Do you know who Steve Biko is?
Maybe, maybe not.
I first met him in a class on Southern African history taught by one of Tufts University’s greatest assests Jeanne Marie Penvenne. Biko is one of the better known martyr’s of Apartheid, which means “separateness,” which was part of the pathetic official South African state policy. While my historical interests have moved on to early Christianity, where I feel they will stay, given my Mission, I will never forget that man and he is one of my many heroes.
My brother Jonah gave me a book yesterday called The Fiver Percenters: Islam, Hip Hop and the Gods of New York. I am currently enthralled by its author Michael Muhammad Knight’s words. The Five Percenter movement, the Nation of Islam, and other black consciousness movements here in the United States were concurrent with Biko and black consciousness in South Africa and their message, while transmitted in such different ways both sought to empower the black man to his rightful place as a human being like us all.
If you are at all interested in studying the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa, I highly recommend I Write What I Like by Steve Biko and the aforementioned The Five Percenters. Parallel movements coexisting on each side of the Atlantic, in opposite hemispheres present the historian with a challenge. I have not yet researched whether these movements had any sort of firm connections with each other but any books or information would be greatly appreciated.
Here are two tales for the open minded seeker of Knowldege. Peace to the Gods and the Earths.
I Write What I Like by Steve Biko
The Fiver Percenters by Michael Muhammad Knight
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