1
00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:01,920
Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

2
00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:15,560
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,

3
00:00:15,960 --> 00:00:18,720
Speaker 1: a show that pays tribute to people of the past

4
00:00:19,079 --> 00:00:23,439
Speaker 1: by telling their stories. Today, I'm Gave Luzier, and in

5
00:00:23,480 --> 00:00:27,560
Speaker 1: this episode we're talking about the life, work, and tragic

6
00:00:27,640 --> 00:00:31,200
Speaker 1: murder of Steve Bico, a man who made it his

7
00:00:31,320 --> 00:00:42,800
Speaker 1: mission to give the world a more human face. The

8
00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:50,159
Speaker 1: day was September twelfth, seventy seven. Anti apartheid activists Steve

9
00:00:50,280 --> 00:00:54,560
Speaker 1: Bico died on the floor of a prison hospital in Pretoria,

10
00:00:54,680 --> 00:00:59,080
Speaker 1: South Africa. He had been arrested for subversion in late

11
00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:03,720
Speaker 1: August and had endured several weeks of abusive interrogation at

12
00:01:03,720 --> 00:01:08,560
Speaker 1: the hands of security police and Port Elizabeth. By September eleven,

13
00:01:08,920 --> 00:01:12,880
Speaker 1: the brutal treatment had left Bico in a semi comatose state,

14
00:01:13,240 --> 00:01:16,120
Speaker 1: at which point he was transferred more than seven hundred

15
00:01:16,120 --> 00:01:20,160
Speaker 1: miles away to the hospital ward of Pretoria Central Prison.

16
00:01:21,040 --> 00:01:24,680
Speaker 1: A few hours later, on September twelfth, he succumbed to

17
00:01:24,720 --> 00:01:28,119
Speaker 1: his injuries and died of a massive brain hemorrhage at

18
00:01:28,160 --> 00:01:32,320
Speaker 1: the age of thirty. The political killing of Steve Bico

19
00:01:32,440 --> 00:01:36,160
Speaker 1: sparked an international outcry and made him a powerful symbol

20
00:01:36,200 --> 00:01:40,800
Speaker 1: of black resistance to the apartheid regime. His supporters kept

21
00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:44,200
Speaker 1: that momentum going and eventually used it to help overturn

22
00:01:44,280 --> 00:01:47,920
Speaker 1: the oppressive white minority government that had rolled over South

23
00:01:47,960 --> 00:01:54,120
Speaker 1: Africa since the late nineteen forties. Stephen Bantubico was born

24
00:01:54,200 --> 00:01:59,400
Speaker 1: on December eighteenth, nineteen forty six, in King Williamstown, South Africa.

25
00:02:00,200 --> 00:02:02,960
Speaker 1: His father worked as a police officer and later as

26
00:02:02,960 --> 00:02:06,120
Speaker 1: a clerk in the town's Native Affairs office, and his

27
00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:09,399
Speaker 1: mother worked as a cook at a local hospital. When

28
00:02:09,440 --> 00:02:12,839
Speaker 1: Bico was just two years old, the National Party came

29
00:02:12,880 --> 00:02:15,880
Speaker 1: to power in his country and quickly enacted a series

30
00:02:15,880 --> 00:02:19,640
Speaker 1: of racist policies that sought to segregate and control black

31
00:02:19,720 --> 00:02:25,280
Speaker 1: South African citizens. This hateful system was called Apartheide, an

32
00:02:25,320 --> 00:02:29,760
Speaker 1: Afrikaans word meaning separateness or the state of being a part.

33
00:02:30,440 --> 00:02:34,120
Speaker 1: The new laws not only dictated where black citizens were

34
00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:37,200
Speaker 1: allowed to live and work, but also who they could

35
00:02:37,240 --> 00:02:41,120
Speaker 1: marry and how they could vote, if at all. Steve

36
00:02:41,240 --> 00:02:45,960
Speaker 1: Bico grew up under Apartheide and experienced its injustice firsthand.

37
00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:48,960
Speaker 1: When he was just fifteen years old, he had been

38
00:02:49,080 --> 00:02:52,600
Speaker 1: enrolled at Lovedale College in the Eastern Cape, but when

39
00:02:52,600 --> 00:02:55,959
Speaker 1: he started speaking up for the rights of black South Africans,

40
00:02:56,000 --> 00:03:00,840
Speaker 1: he was expelled for anti establishment behavior. He had an

41
00:03:00,840 --> 00:03:04,639
Speaker 1: easier time at his next school, Saint Francis College in Natal,

42
00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:08,799
Speaker 1: and after graduating, he began studying medicine at the University

43
00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:13,160
Speaker 1: of Natal Medical School in the university's Black section. That is,

44
00:03:14,040 --> 00:03:17,280
Speaker 1: as he worked toward a career in medicine, Beko also

45
00:03:17,360 --> 00:03:20,040
Speaker 1: returned to the activism of his youth by becoming a

46
00:03:20,080 --> 00:03:24,160
Speaker 1: member of the National Union of South African Students. This

47
00:03:24,320 --> 00:03:28,280
Speaker 1: multi racial group shared his passion for the fight against apartheide,

48
00:03:28,520 --> 00:03:32,080
Speaker 1: but over time he realized its white liberal members weren't

49
00:03:32,120 --> 00:03:35,440
Speaker 1: willing to go far enough. They wanted rights to be

50
00:03:35,560 --> 00:03:39,080
Speaker 1: restored to black South Africans, but that's as much change

51
00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:42,360
Speaker 1: as they could agree on. The National Union saw the

52
00:03:42,480 --> 00:03:45,040
Speaker 1: end of apartheid as a way to restore the old

53
00:03:45,040 --> 00:03:49,440
Speaker 1: status quo, where black citizens were welcome to participate in

54
00:03:49,560 --> 00:03:53,760
Speaker 1: white South African society, but Steve Beko and many of

55
00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:57,000
Speaker 1: his fellow black peers believed that wouldn't be enough to

56
00:03:57,120 --> 00:04:00,600
Speaker 1: right the wrong of apartheid. They didn't want to return

57
00:04:00,680 --> 00:04:04,400
Speaker 1: to society they wanted to reform it, but this time

58
00:04:04,520 --> 00:04:07,240
Speaker 1: with the culture of the black majority at its center.

59
00:04:07,920 --> 00:04:11,160
Speaker 1: With that aim in mind, Beco resigned from the Union

60
00:04:11,200 --> 00:04:14,760
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty nine and founded his own all black group,

61
00:04:15,200 --> 00:04:19,320
Speaker 1: the South African Students Organization or the Essay s O.

62
00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:23,400
Speaker 1: The group work to support and empower black communities by

63
00:04:23,440 --> 00:04:27,400
Speaker 1: providing them with legal aid, medical treatment, and job opportunities.

64
00:04:28,200 --> 00:04:33,479
Speaker 1: Around that time, BECO began promoting Black consciousness, the idea

65
00:04:33,560 --> 00:04:37,120
Speaker 1: that black identity should be self defined and not subject

66
00:04:37,120 --> 00:04:41,920
Speaker 1: to the definitions of others. As Ko explained quote, black

67
00:04:42,040 --> 00:04:45,640
Speaker 1: consciousness seeks to infuse the black community with a new

68
00:04:45,680 --> 00:04:50,560
Speaker 1: found pride in themselves, their efforts, their value systems, their culture,

69
00:04:50,800 --> 00:04:54,760
Speaker 1: their religion, and their outlook to life. What black consciousness

70
00:04:54,800 --> 00:04:58,080
Speaker 1: seeks to do is to produce real Black people who

71
00:04:58,120 --> 00:05:02,240
Speaker 1: do not regard themselves as a pen diges to white society.

72
00:05:02,680 --> 00:05:06,320
Speaker 1: In the early nineteen seventies, Vico helped spread the philosophy

73
00:05:06,360 --> 00:05:09,839
Speaker 1: of Black consciousness by speaking on college campuses and in

74
00:05:09,880 --> 00:05:13,960
Speaker 1: black communities throughout the country. The movement grew so large

75
00:05:14,080 --> 00:05:17,839
Speaker 1: that in nineteen seventy two, Vico helped establish an umbrella

76
00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:22,000
Speaker 1: organization called the Black People's Convention to help coordinate all

77
00:05:22,040 --> 00:05:25,200
Speaker 1: the various Black consciousness groups that had sprung up in

78
00:05:25,279 --> 00:05:30,919
Speaker 1: response to his message. Unfortunately, Beco's writing and speeches also

79
00:05:31,040 --> 00:05:35,480
Speaker 1: drew the attention of the apartheid government. In nineteen seventy three,

80
00:05:35,680 --> 00:05:39,800
Speaker 1: it retaliated by banning Steve Ko and many of his colleagues.

81
00:05:40,520 --> 00:05:45,000
Speaker 1: This apartheid practice, banning was essentially a kind of exile.

82
00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:48,880
Speaker 1: It forced the activists to return to his registered hometown

83
00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:51,599
Speaker 1: and to stay there until he was no longer deemed

84
00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:54,719
Speaker 1: a threat to the government. He was only allowed to

85
00:05:54,760 --> 00:05:58,520
Speaker 1: travel short distances and was forbidden to give public speeches

86
00:05:58,640 --> 00:06:02,360
Speaker 1: or to circulate his writing. But even with these restrictions

87
00:06:02,360 --> 00:06:05,520
Speaker 1: in place, Beco still found ways to be of service

88
00:06:05,560 --> 00:06:09,440
Speaker 1: to the movement he helped start. He started organizing small

89
00:06:09,480 --> 00:06:12,799
Speaker 1: community groups to spread black consciousness at a local level.

90
00:06:13,400 --> 00:06:17,160
Speaker 1: He also continued working for the Black People's Convention, although

91
00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:19,720
Speaker 1: the distance compelled him to be less hands on than

92
00:06:19,720 --> 00:06:23,960
Speaker 1: he would have liked. Beco was closely monitored and frequently

93
00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:27,400
Speaker 1: harassed during the course of his band. In fact, he

94
00:06:27,480 --> 00:06:31,640
Speaker 1: was arrested and interrogated four different times between nineteen seventy

95
00:06:31,640 --> 00:06:36,279
Speaker 1: five and nineteen seventy seven on suspicion of terrorism. By

96
00:06:36,279 --> 00:06:39,719
Speaker 1: that time, the Black Consciousness movement was struggling under the

97
00:06:39,720 --> 00:06:43,800
Speaker 1: weight of apartheid bands and police crackdowns. To help keep

98
00:06:43,839 --> 00:06:47,680
Speaker 1: the movement alive, Beco made the dangerous choice to defy

99
00:06:47,880 --> 00:06:51,240
Speaker 1: his band by leaving King Williamstown to meet with other

100
00:06:51,279 --> 00:06:55,200
Speaker 1: activists in Cape Town. He made it there safely thanks

101
00:06:55,200 --> 00:06:57,719
Speaker 1: to a convincing disguise and a bit of good luck,

102
00:06:58,320 --> 00:07:00,640
Speaker 1: but on the way back home he was stopped at

103
00:07:00,640 --> 00:07:04,440
Speaker 1: a police roadblock and the officers knew exactly who he was.

104
00:07:05,480 --> 00:07:09,280
Speaker 1: The Eastern Cape Security Police arrested Bico on the spot.

105
00:07:09,880 --> 00:07:12,960
Speaker 1: After briefly being held in a jail cell in Port Elizabeth,

106
00:07:13,160 --> 00:07:16,920
Speaker 1: he was taken to the Security Police headquarters. There he

107
00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:20,960
Speaker 1: was stripped naked and placed in shackles. Then, for nearly

108
00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:25,280
Speaker 1: a month straight, he was interrogated and beaten over and

109
00:07:25,440 --> 00:07:31,920
Speaker 1: over again. These assaults grew steadily more brutal until September seven, when,

110
00:07:32,040 --> 00:07:35,320
Speaker 1: during the course of a twenty two hour long interrogation,

111
00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:38,320
Speaker 1: Ico was beaten over the head to the point of

112
00:07:38,360 --> 00:07:43,040
Speaker 1: brain damage. According to a government report published two decades later,

113
00:07:43,520 --> 00:07:48,120
Speaker 1: quote Beco sustained a head injury during interrogation, after which

114
00:07:48,160 --> 00:07:52,360
Speaker 1: he acted strangely and was uncooperative. The doctors who examined

115
00:07:52,440 --> 00:07:55,720
Speaker 1: him naked, lying on a mat and manacled to a

116
00:07:55,760 --> 00:08:01,520
Speaker 1: metal grill, initially disregarded over its signs of neural logical injury,

117
00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:05,559
Speaker 1: Beco's abusers continued to ignore his pain for as long

118
00:08:05,600 --> 00:08:09,320
Speaker 1: as they could. It wasn't until September eleven, when he

119
00:08:09,360 --> 00:08:12,080
Speaker 1: slipped into a semi conscious state, that one of the

120
00:08:12,120 --> 00:08:16,119
Speaker 1: doctors finally recommended taking him to a hospital, But even

121
00:08:16,160 --> 00:08:20,560
Speaker 1: then he wasn't driven to the local civilian hospital. Instead,

122
00:08:20,600 --> 00:08:22,960
Speaker 1: they threw him in the back of an suv and

123
00:08:23,040 --> 00:08:25,960
Speaker 1: drove him to the closest prison with a hospital ward.

124
00:08:26,600 --> 00:08:29,119
Speaker 1: It turned out to be in the city of Pretoria,

125
00:08:29,280 --> 00:08:33,360
Speaker 1: roughly seven hundred and forty miles away. The drive there

126
00:08:33,600 --> 00:08:39,720
Speaker 1: took twelve hours. Steve Beco never got the treatment he needed. Instead,

127
00:08:40,040 --> 00:08:44,160
Speaker 1: he died shortly after arriving. He was found alone on

128
00:08:44,200 --> 00:08:48,719
Speaker 1: the floor of his cell, still naked, still shackled. When

129
00:08:48,760 --> 00:08:51,800
Speaker 1: the news of his death first broke, the police denied

130
00:08:51,880 --> 00:08:57,000
Speaker 1: any wrongdoing. Beco hadn't been mistreated, they said, In fact,

131
00:08:57,320 --> 00:09:00,240
Speaker 1: his death was his own fault. The sad rest halt

132
00:09:00,320 --> 00:09:03,079
Speaker 1: of a hunger strike protests that went on a little

133
00:09:03,120 --> 00:09:07,600
Speaker 1: too long. In autopsy later proved they were lying. Their

134
00:09:07,640 --> 00:09:10,720
Speaker 1: prisoner had died from a brain hemorrhage caused by severe

135
00:09:10,760 --> 00:09:14,480
Speaker 1: blows to the head sustained while in their custody. It

136
00:09:14,600 --> 00:09:17,560
Speaker 1: was no matter, though. The government stood by its men,

137
00:09:17,960 --> 00:09:23,000
Speaker 1: and every officer and doctor involved was eventually exonerated, but

138
00:09:23,080 --> 00:09:27,000
Speaker 1: the court of public opinion was far less lenient. Protests

139
00:09:27,080 --> 00:09:29,560
Speaker 1: broke out all over the world, and the U N

140
00:09:29,679 --> 00:09:34,199
Speaker 1: even imposed an arms embargo on South Africa. Beco's death

141
00:09:34,360 --> 00:09:38,360
Speaker 1: became a global concern, and somewhere between fifteen and thirty

142
00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:43,080
Speaker 1: thousand people, including several world leaders, attended his funeral, but

143
00:09:43,160 --> 00:09:46,240
Speaker 1: the roots of apartheid ran deep, and even with the

144
00:09:46,280 --> 00:09:49,920
Speaker 1: whole world watching, the pressure still wasn't enough to topple

145
00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:53,560
Speaker 1: the racist regime, or even to get it to admit wrongdoing.

146
00:09:54,240 --> 00:09:57,520
Speaker 1: The closest it came was in nineteen seventy nine, when

147
00:09:57,520 --> 00:10:01,080
Speaker 1: the South African government gave the Beco Emily seventy eight

148
00:10:01,120 --> 00:10:06,079
Speaker 1: thousand dollars as compensation for his death. Beco's widow referred

149
00:10:06,080 --> 00:10:09,360
Speaker 1: to the payment as quote blood money and viewed it

150
00:10:09,400 --> 00:10:13,640
Speaker 1: as an admission of the government's guilt. Officials disagreed, but

151
00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:17,040
Speaker 1: they considered the matter settled all the same, But they

152
00:10:17,040 --> 00:10:20,840
Speaker 1: were wrong about that. Other activists carried on what Steve

153
00:10:20,920 --> 00:10:24,840
Speaker 1: Beco started, and in the early nine nineties they finally

154
00:10:24,880 --> 00:10:28,520
Speaker 1: put an end to the apartheid era. Power was peacefully

155
00:10:28,520 --> 00:10:33,600
Speaker 1: transferred to South Africa's black majority and in a body

156
00:10:33,679 --> 00:10:38,240
Speaker 1: called the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was formed. Its task

157
00:10:38,480 --> 00:10:42,480
Speaker 1: was to investigate the decades of atrocities committed under apartheid

158
00:10:42,920 --> 00:10:45,640
Speaker 1: and to hold accountable those who had abused their power.

159
00:10:46,559 --> 00:10:51,560
Speaker 1: In five former police officers appeared before the Commission and

160
00:10:51,640 --> 00:10:56,040
Speaker 1: confessed to having killed Steve Beco twenty years earlier. They

161
00:10:56,040 --> 00:10:59,680
Speaker 1: applied for amnesty, but were denied it as their crime

162
00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:04,319
Speaker 1: isn't politically motivated. They hadn't beaten Steve Ico to death

163
00:11:04,400 --> 00:11:07,920
Speaker 1: for his beliefs. They did it because they could. But

164
00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:12,199
Speaker 1: although they weren't granted amnesty, the officers were never prosecuted

165
00:11:12,240 --> 00:11:15,480
Speaker 1: for their crime either, due to a supposed lack of evidence.

166
00:11:16,480 --> 00:11:19,600
Speaker 1: That injustice is one of the many wounds dealt by

167
00:11:19,600 --> 00:11:23,800
Speaker 1: the apartheid era that still stings today. But the legacy

168
00:11:23,880 --> 00:11:26,880
Speaker 1: of Steve Bico has lived on as well, not just

169
00:11:27,040 --> 00:11:29,600
Speaker 1: in the free people of South Africa, but in those

170
00:11:29,640 --> 00:11:32,560
Speaker 1: across the globe who continue to fight for dignity and

171
00:11:32,600 --> 00:11:37,600
Speaker 1: self determination. They believe, as Steve Bico once wrote, that

172
00:11:37,880 --> 00:11:40,520
Speaker 1: it is better to die for an idea that will

173
00:11:40,600 --> 00:11:45,080
Speaker 1: live than to live for an idea that will die.

174
00:11:46,240 --> 00:11:49,679
Speaker 1: I'm Gabe Lucier and hopefully you now know a little

175
00:11:49,679 --> 00:11:53,640
Speaker 1: more about history today than you did yesterday. If you

176
00:11:53,679 --> 00:11:56,839
Speaker 1: have a second and you're so inclined, consider following us

177
00:11:56,880 --> 00:12:01,480
Speaker 1: on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at t d i HC Show,

178
00:12:02,200 --> 00:12:05,040
Speaker 1: and if you have any comments or suggestions, feel free

179
00:12:05,040 --> 00:12:07,600
Speaker 1: to send them my way at this day at I

180
00:12:07,720 --> 00:12:11,720
Speaker 1: heart media dot com. Thanks as always the Chandler Maids

181
00:12:11,840 --> 00:12:14,400
Speaker 1: for producing the show, and thanks to you for listening.

182
00:12:14,920 --> 00:12:17,800
Speaker 1: I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another day

183
00:12:18,040 --> 00:12:19,080
Speaker 1: in History class