Biko
September 77
Port elizabeth weather fine
It was business as usual
In police room 619
Oh biko, biko, because biko
Oh biko, biko, because biko
Hiromija, hiromija
The man is dead, the man is dead
When I try to sleep at night
I can only dream in red
The outside world is black and white
With only one colour dead
Oh biko, biko, because biko
Oh biko, biko, because biko
Hiromija, hiromija
The man is dead, the man is dead
You can blow out a candle
But you can never blow out a fire
Once the flames begin to catch
The wind will blow it higher
Oh biko, biko, because biko
Oh biko, biko, because biko
Hiromija, hiromija
The man is dead, the man is dead
And the eyes of the world are watching you now
Theyre watching you now, watching you now
Watching you now, watching you now
Theyre watching you now
You gotta waken up, you gotta face up
I think you gotta open up
The eyes of the world are watching you now
You gotta waken up, you gotta face up
You know you can never turn away
Never turn away
Words and music : peter gabriel reproduced without permission
song performed by by Simple Minds
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
Biko
September '77
Port elizabeth - sonnenschein
In sechs-eins-neun endlich ruhe
Nur ein stuhl ging aus dem leim
Oh biko, biko, because biko
Oh biko, biko, because biko
Yihla moja, yihla moja
- er ist tot
Du loescht gerade noch eine kerze
Doch nicht ein grosses feuer
Springt die flamme einaml ueber
Treibt der wind sie immer hoeher
Oh biko, biko, because biko
Oh biko, biko, because biko
Yihla moja, yihla moja
- er ist tot
Die lange nacht ist viel zu heiss
Ich traeum nur noch in rot
Die welt da draussen ist schwarz-weiss
Nur eine farbe tot
Oh biko, biko, because biko
Oh biko, biko, because biko
Yihla moja, yihla moja
- er ist tot
Und alle, alle seh'n euch jetzt
Seh'n euch jetzt seh'n euch jetzt
Sie sind da
song performed by by Peter Gabriel
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Biko
Biko
What a funny cat you are
Biko
You love when somebody rub your tummy
With their hands
poem by Aldo Kraas
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
You are either alive and proud or you are dead, and when you are dead, you can't care anyway.
quote by Steven Biko
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Black man, you are on your own.
quote by Steven Biko
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
You cannot keep a man down without staying down with him.
quote by Steve Biko
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
quote by Steven Biko
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
In time, we shall be in a position to bestow on South Africa the greatest possible gift - a more human face.
quote by Steven Biko
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
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.
quote by Steven Biko
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
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.
quote by Steven Biko
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Being black is not a matter of pigmentation - being black is a reflection of a mental attitude.
quote by Steven Biko
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
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.
quote by Steven Biko
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
The basic tenet of black consciousness is that the black man must reject all value systems that seek to make him a foreigner in the country of his birth and reduce his basic human dignity.
quote by Steven Biko
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
So as a prelude whites must be made to realise that they are only human, not superior. Same with Blacks. They must be made to realise that they are also human, not inferior.
quote by Steven Biko
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
From My Perspective
From my perspective
I believe that Tupac Shakur was a victim of racism
So as Nelson Mandela, who fought through courage towards the bright light
Tupac was not just a rapper who stood up for young Black males
But an icon to me, a prophet and a voice of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King
And all the unmentioned prophets
There are many examples of such prophets, the other one Is Biko
He is the hero of me, although we still fight the battle within the minds black
Away from the now foreseen ‘Tribal racism’
I remember the time they released Mandela from jail
I was eight years old,
That was a good day for me.
I also remember the time they assassinated Chris Hani
It was just after my birthday, April the 9th
That was a sad day for me
Although all the true stories are never told
My perceptive forever hold
Your perspectives forever hold
After all, this is Africa the truth here is served dead and cold
poem by Sicelo Sithole
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Shadows of Stephen
You can run alongside but he's out of your hands
He stumbles in the sad and stony road
He has the bible but they have the land
You can touch his side as the slickness of sky
Sends its twisted messages among you
And can you hear your windy cry, that plea
For release against the soldiers of the creed
Of the still-born revolution, hateful energy
On which your authorities feed?
Pray as you may, on your Sabbath of decay
That he will live among the poorly-fed
To be rumoured and remembered
In the dark and centurion years ahead
Write poems for the beauty of his skin
Washed in the blood of your love for him
For which you will be exiles, and pray
He will not drive in limousines
His words will be obscenity
If men are still obscene
They mock his blackness harder than his dreams
Hear his song conciliation, see his eyes
They bind him with passivity, they ride
Beside him through the throng
His hands are open now in theirs'.
Soon they will be shattering his palms.
In the shadows of Stephen
Men will take to arms.
For Stephen Biko
December 1977
poem by Frank Bana
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
I Have A Dream Of An Africa
I have a dream of an Africa
A united Africa!
Self sustaining and self reliant
Able to produce
Anything out of nothing
And trade within her-self
And with the world at large
A proud Africa
Of a civilizing people
Like our Egyptian, and
Olmec ancestors…
I dream of an Africa that
Patrice Lumumba died for
Kwame Nkrumah stood up for
Nelson Mandela paid dearly for
An Africa of Haile Selasie I
An Africa of GIANTS
Where men are great, proud and dignified
An Africa of Cleopatra, Maqeda, Nzingha and Nyamazana
An Africa without genocide, starvation, or disease
An Africa, without dictators!
A free Africa
Taking on the driver’s seat
Teaching without enslaving-
To show the world it’s possible!
No refugees because
All the Children belong!
An Africa, a Mother Land
Where an elephant
Feeds from the Elephant Tree
And the gorilla roams free
And the lion goes to hunt
If he wants
Because God loved him to!
An Africa that
Bhambatha (ka Mancinza)
Sobukwe (Robert)
Fanon (Frantz)
Biko (Steve)
X (Malcolm)
Garvey (Marcus)
And Douglas (Frederick)
Would look at and smile about
I have a dream of an Africa
But from this one, I shall not wake
Because I dream standing up
My eyes looking out
My arms open wide
To the ones, mad enough, to dream the same-
poem by LLM Mbatha
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Mal Sacate
Mr. money man, I know youve had your way
And I know the way youre winning
And that bloody hand youre holding
Aint no bargain at the price you had to pay
You have stolen all the land that you can steal
And you killed so many heroes
But the dreams they left behind them
Aint as easy as a man to blow away
Chorus:
And they say, el mal sacate ni el fuego lo quema
And los mexicanos dicen, cosa mala nunca muere
Dont you know ?
The fire dont burn a bad weed boy
And a bad thing never dies
Like the bad weeds growing wild around
The broken wounded body of el salvador
They killed so many heroes
Like zapata (presente!) and fonseca (presente!)
And sandino (presente!) and guevarra (presente!)
And allende (presente!) and aquino (presente!)
And steve biko (presente!)
But they can never kill the human spirit
Not in nicaragua !
Chorus:
And they say, el mal sacate ni el fuego lo quema
And los mexicanos dicen, cosa mala nunca muere
Dont you know ?
Aiiiiiaiiiaiiiiii nicaragua !
Aiiiiiaiiiaiiiiii sandinista !
song performed by by Kris Kristofferson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Watching Me Watching You
I sit by the cutting on the beaconsfield line.
Hes watching me watching the trains go by.
And they move so fast --- boy, they really fly.
Hes still watching me watching you watching the
Trains go by.
And the way he stares --- feel like locking my door
And pulling my phone from the wall.
His eyes, like lights from a laser, burn
Making my hair stand --- making the goose-bumps crawl.
Hes watching me watching you watching him
Watching me
Im watching you watching him watching me
Watching stares.
At the cocktail party with a bucks fizz in my hand
I feel him watching me watching the girls go by.
And they move so smooth without even trying.
Hes still watching me watching you watching the
Trains go by.
And the crowd thins and he moves up close but he doesnt speak.
I have to look the other way.
But curiosity gets the better part of me and I peek:
Got two drinks in his hand --- see his lips move ---
What the hells he trying to say.
Hes watching me watching you watching him
Watching me.
Im watching you watching him watching me
Watching stares.
Hes watching me watching you watching him
Watching me.
Hes watching me watching you watching
The trains go by.
Hes watching me watching you watching him
Watching me.
Hes watching me watching you watching him watching me.
Hes watching me watching you watching him watching me watching him watching.
song performed by by Jethro Tull
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Private Eyes
Lyrics & music: daryl hall, warren pash, sara allen, janna allen
I see you, you see me
Watch you blowin the lines when youre making a scene
Oh girl, youve got to know
What my head overlooks
The senses will show to my heart
When its watching for lies
You cant escape my
Private eyes
Theyre watching you
They see your every move
Private eyes
Theyre watching you
Private eyes
Theyre watching you watching you watching you watching you
You play with words you play with love
You can twist it around baby that aint enough
Cause girl Im gonna know
If youre letting me in or letting me go
Dont lie when youre hurting inside
cause you cant escape my
Private eyes
Theyre watching you
They see your every move
Private eyes
Theyre watching you
Private eyes
Theyre watching you watching you watching you watching you
Why you try to put up a front for me
Im a spy but on your side you see
Slip on, into any disguise
Ill still know you
Look into my private eyes
song performed by by Hall & Oates
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Pariahs in the land of their birth
I too am a great admirer of Oliver Tambo
I love Nelson Mandela
Ruth First and John Harris were brutally
Eliminated by the gangs of white minority rule
I admire their courage and the supreme
Sacrifice they both made...
I too am an African and I know what it's like
To sleep in the veld on a hideous night
Under a bitterly cold sky
And I have seen poor despised black families
Forced to bury their dead toddlers amid fear and trembling
And the throbs of torturing anguish in a stolen grave
I am an African don't call me a person of color
I am a victim of capitalism in it's most brutal form
I have seen what forced labor and slavery and
The criminal enclosure of land can do to the soul of a people
Who're forced to accept the lie that their survival
Depends on them working for a slave's wages...
I am an African and I know that even today my people
Are still subjected to the pain of the whip and the jail house
And the noose
I am an African and my heart bleeds for my people
Trapped in the mine and the factory and the kitchen
I hate the cabals of the A.N.C
They have misled my people and their're thieving ways
Would leave the vile Mobutu Sese Seko seething with envy
And the people are told to obey the Willing Buyer Willing Seller
Draconian law that ensures they remain roving pariahs in the land of Their birth
And they tell us that ours is a free and fair society
But they don't hesitate to unleash the army
And the police on us when we demand social justice and not
The suspect democracy they say we must accept or else.....
I too am an African
And I have listened to the teachings of Biko and Sobukwe
And I wish all the young men and women of South Africa
Would embrace the eternal virtues of purity and sacrifice and patriotism
And stop this Godless pursuit of sex and cheap thrills
And I call upon the leaders of Africa to stop their useless wars
And to stop stealing from their own people
I go down on my knees and I pray and I ask God to save Africa
So that she is no longer looked upon as the continent
Of disease and wars and hunger
God bless Africa
poem by Ngaka Motaung
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!