Speaker 1: I have cherished the idea of a democratic and society.
Speaker 1: It'll be all bestials we leave together in hall and
Speaker 1: with equal opportunity. But my Lord, if it needs be,
Speaker 1: it is an idea but which I am prepared to die.
Speaker 1: You just heard anti apartheid revolutionary Nelson Mandela addressed the
Speaker 1: court at the opening of his trial for sabotage in
Speaker 1: April of nineteen sixty four. He said what many other
Speaker 1: justice seekers have, that he was not afraid to die
Speaker 1: in pursuit of freedom. Many people before him died for
Speaker 1: their activism, and many people since then have been murdered
Speaker 1: for speaking up. We mourn their deaths, and we wonder
Speaker 1: what they could have done had they not been killed,
Speaker 1: But thank goodness they lived. I'm Eve Steff Coote and
Speaker 1: this is Unpopular a podcast about the people in history
Speaker 1: who didn't let the threat of persecution keep them from
Speaker 1: speaking truth to power. What do we do when we
Speaker 1: are ruled by governments that perpetrate violence and meet out
Speaker 1: harsh punishments indiscriminately? What do we do when we realize
Speaker 1: we have the power to change systemic injustices. Well, not
Speaker 1: everyone is compelled to fight on the front lines standing
Speaker 1: up to big anything can be intimidating and scary, and
Speaker 1: being one of nearly eight billion people in the world
Speaker 1: can make us feel small and far from powerful. Risk
Speaker 1: aversion helps keep us alive. The vanguard isn't for everybody,
Speaker 1: but other times we feel the need to ignore that
Speaker 1: primal drive for survival, where bungee jumping off the side
Speaker 1: of a bridge, hundreds of feet in the air, with
Speaker 1: only our bungee cords and strong conviction that it's not
Speaker 1: our time to go there to save us. In the
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty eight book Stride Toward Freedom The Montgomery Story
Speaker 1: by Martin Luther King Jr. King said, this human progress
Speaker 1: is neither automatic nor inevitable. Even a superficial look at
Speaker 1: history reveals that no social advance rolls in on the
Speaker 1: wheels of inevitability. Every step towards the goal of justice
Speaker 1: requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle, the tireless exertions and passionate
Speaker 1: concern of dedicated individuals. Without persistent effort, time itself becomes
Speaker 1: an ally of the insurgent and primitive forces of a
Speaker 1: rational emotionalism and social destruction. This is no time for
Speaker 1: apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and
Speaker 1: positive action. When I think about this quote, I get
Speaker 1: caught on this idea of a world that's crumbling because
Speaker 1: we are not constantly working. To be honest, there's something
Speaker 1: about this sentiment that's depressing and makes me feel jaded.
Speaker 1: The world gave us sandy beaches, tropical rainforest teeming with
Speaker 1: colorful life, and prestige television just for us to have
Speaker 1: to sacrifice many, many hours of leisure to keep us
Speaker 1: from destroying ourselves. I mean, it doesn't sound like the
Speaker 1: most well designed experiment, but that is the reality of
Speaker 1: our time on Earth. It's not the most pleasant thing
Speaker 1: to imagine being one step away from annihilation and having
Speaker 1: to put an ungodly amount of work just to make
Speaker 1: sure we don't reach that precipice. It toes the line
Speaker 1: of absurdity. Kind of like scrambling to continuously fill a
Speaker 1: bucket with a hole in it. But here we are
Speaker 1: playing defense against the forces that threatened to hear us
Speaker 1: apart It's tiring, but it's necessary. Stephen Bantubico was one
Speaker 1: of the people who realized how inhumane and devastating apartheid
Speaker 1: was too Black people, and took vigorous and positive action.
Speaker 1: As Dr King put it, Apartheid was an institutional problem
Speaker 1: that was pervasive in all segments of South African society,
Speaker 1: but Vico was committed to the liberation of black folks
Speaker 1: from that oppressive system of racial segregation and from self limitations.
Speaker 1: He didn't get to see the end of apartheid, but
Speaker 1: he did see his mission through to his end. Vico
Speaker 1: was born in Tarka, stood in the Eastern Province of
Speaker 1: South Africa now called Eastern Cape, on December eighteenth, nineteen.
Speaker 1: His family was Closa, the second largest cultural group in
Speaker 1: South Africa. His mother, Nokuzola Mackete Duna, worked as a
Speaker 1: domestic worker and as a cook at Gray's Hospital Zungai Bico.
Speaker 1: His father worked as a policeman then clerk in the
Speaker 1: King Williamstown Native Affairs Office and some Gay died in
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty before he could get his law degree from
Speaker 1: the University of South Africa when Stephen was four years old.
Speaker 1: Stephen was his parents third child. His older brother Kaya
Speaker 1: was involved in the Pan Africanist Congress, an organization and
Speaker 1: later political party concerned with Africanist policies for black South Africans.
Speaker 1: Steve excelled as a student, but after Kaya was arrested
Speaker 1: and jailed under suspicion of his involvement with the Armed
Speaker 1: wing of the Pan Africanist Congress, Steve was interrogated by
Speaker 1: police for his connection to Kaya and subsequently expelled from
Speaker 1: his school, and at this point Steve's political interest was roused.
Speaker 1: Kaya set the following about his younger brother. Steve was
Speaker 1: expelled for absolutely no reason at all. But in retrospect,
Speaker 1: I walk on the South African government's gesture of exposing
Speaker 1: a really good politician. I had unsuccessfully tried to get
Speaker 1: Steve interested in politics. The police were able to do
Speaker 1: in one day what had eluded me for years. This
Speaker 1: time the great giant was awakened. I know you're dying
Speaker 1: to find out what the giant did when he got woke.
Speaker 1: But we can't dive into Steve's activism without touching on
Speaker 1: what apartheid was and how it started. When we come
Speaker 1: back from the break, we'll talk a little about the
Speaker 1: system of separateness that emerged in South Africa. Here's the
Speaker 1: Crash course on the beginnings of apartheid, so you can
Speaker 1: get a feel for the world. Beaco was born into
Speaker 1: In nineteen ten, the former British colonies of the Cape Natale,
Speaker 1: trans Fall and Orange River were united to become provinces
Speaker 1: in the Union of South Africa, and the Union became
Speaker 1: an independent dominion of the British Empire. Just three years later,
Speaker 1: Territorial apartheid began in South Africa when the Land Act
Speaker 1: was passed. The Act reserved most South African land for
Speaker 1: white people and designated very little land for Africans. To
Speaker 1: be specific, more than eighty percent of the land was
Speaker 1: designated for white people, who made up less than twenty
Speaker 1: of the population. Africans made up about sixty seven percent
Speaker 1: of the population, but only about seven percent of arable
Speaker 1: land was allocated to them as so called reserves. That percentage, though,
Speaker 1: was later increased to thirteen White folks were not allowed
Speaker 1: to buy land from black folks, and black folks were
Speaker 1: not allowed to buy land from white people. Sharecropping on
Speaker 1: farms was forbidden, though that wasn't always the case in practice.
Speaker 1: While black people were being evicted off of white farmers land,
Speaker 1: white farmers were getting low interest loans from the government
Speaker 1: that allowed them to increase the efficiency of their farms.
Speaker 1: Land dispossession and segregation were already part of South African
Speaker 1: history before the Land Act was passed. The problem of
Speaker 1: how to deal with indigenous peoples in South Africa became
Speaker 1: known as the Native question. The Dutch in British seized
Speaker 1: and occupied land as they pursued expansion, depriving indigenous African
Speaker 1: communities of their land. So called native reserve were established
Speaker 1: as early as eighteen forty eight in Natal and the
Speaker 1: Gland Gray Act of eighteen ninety four, which applied to
Speaker 1: a district in the Cape Colony, disenfranchised Africans and limited
Speaker 1: the number of Africans who could live on and own
Speaker 1: their own land. So even though the nineteen thirteen Land
Speaker 1: Act was the first big piece of segregation legislation passed
Speaker 1: by the Union Parliament, it was the culmination of years
Speaker 1: of policies that enforced the perceived superiority of whiteness and
Speaker 1: inferiority of blackness, and from their political discrimination based on
Speaker 1: race and the enforcement of boss cap or white supremacy
Speaker 1: for the benefit of the minority white state grew more aggressive.
Speaker 1: Former Board General James Hertzog founded the African or Nationalist
Speaker 1: Party in nineteen fourteen in opposition to the moderate policies
Speaker 1: of Prime Minister Lewis Botha and Interior Minds and Defense
Speaker 1: Minister Jan Christian Smuts Hertzog and the National Party supported
Speaker 1: South Africa's interests over Britain's and advocated for two parallel
Speaker 1: but separate cultural streams for the English and African or communities.
Speaker 1: Afrikaaners are a South African ethnic who descended from Dutch,
Speaker 1: German and French immigrants who migrated to South Africa in
Speaker 1: the seventeenth century. By nine four, the National Party had
Speaker 1: risen to power with the help of the Labor Party,
Speaker 1: both of which wanted to protect white labor, and by
Speaker 1: nineteen forty eight Daniel Milan had become the first Nationalist
Speaker 1: Prime Minister, and the National Party introduced apartheid, which would
Speaker 1: write white domination into law. Whites, Blacks, Indians and colors
Speaker 1: as mixed people were called composed South Africa. The government
Speaker 1: proceeded to institute laws that introduced identity cards, determined where
Speaker 1: people lived according to race forbade interracial marriage and sex,
Speaker 1: disenfranchised colored voters, allowed for the racial segregation of public areas,
Speaker 1: and separated ethnic groups among Bantu stands or what the
Speaker 1: government called Homelands. Steve got into the Durban Medical School
Speaker 1: at the University of Natal Non European section in nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty six. His first year there, he was elected to
Speaker 1: the students Representative Council, which was a member of the
Speaker 1: National Union of South African Students or in U s
Speaker 1: a S. The in U s a S was mostly white,
Speaker 1: as were most students in South African universities. Then, when
Speaker 1: Steve went to an in U s a S conference
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty seven at Rhodes University, the black students
Speaker 1: were fed and housed separately per the Separate Amenities at
Speaker 1: passed by Parliament in nineteen fifty three. Protesting the s
Speaker 1: a s IS knowledge of the arrangements, he proposed that
Speaker 1: the conference be suspended, but that motion was dismissed. He
Speaker 1: and other black students in the organization grew incensed with
Speaker 1: the dominance of the white majority in the organization and
Speaker 1: how their concerns weren't being acknowledged to him and other
Speaker 1: South Africans in the organization. White liberals weren't totally genuine
Speaker 1: about considering black folks equals, and they were implicit in
Speaker 1: upholding the status quo of white people's racial superiority. Steve
Speaker 1: began traveling throughout South Africa advocating for student organization for
Speaker 1: black people only. Soon, students agreed to join Steed in
Speaker 1: the creation of the South African Students Organization or s
Speaker 1: A s O, which would truly address black people's needs
Speaker 1: and completely reject white dominance. In nine, ECO split from
Speaker 1: the National Union of South African Students to form the
Speaker 1: s A s O. In July of the next year,
Speaker 1: he was elected president of the organization. Here's some of
Speaker 1: what he said in his presidential address to the first
Speaker 1: National Formation School of s A s O in December
Speaker 1: of nineteen sixty nine. After laying out the aims of
Speaker 1: the organization. The fact that the all ideology centers around
Speaker 1: non white students as a group might make a few
Speaker 1: people to believe that the organization is racially inclined. Yet
Speaker 1: what A s O has done is simply to take
Speaker 1: stock of the present scene in the country and to
Speaker 1: realize that not unless the non white students decide to
Speaker 1: lift themselves from the duldrums will they ever hope to
Speaker 1: get out of them. What we want is not black visibility,
Speaker 1: but real black participation. In other words, it does not
Speaker 1: help us to see several quiet black faces in a
Speaker 1: multi racial student gathering which ultimately concentrates on what the
Speaker 1: white students believe are the needs for the black students.
Speaker 1: Because of our sheer bargaining power as an organization, we
Speaker 1: can manage, in fact, to bring about a more meaningful
Speaker 1: contact between the various color groups in the student world.
Speaker 1: The creation of the s A s O was linked
Speaker 1: with the Black Consciousness movement. The National Party government had
Speaker 1: suppressed the Pan Africanist Congress and African National Congress, a
Speaker 1: black nationalist organization that fought for the rights of colors
Speaker 1: and Black Africans and opposed apartheid. The organizations continued to
Speaker 1: operate underground and outside of South Africa, but new organizations
Speaker 1: popped up to make up for how many liberation leaders
Speaker 1: have been banned, imprisoned, or exiled. Nelson Mandela, for instance,
Speaker 1: was arrested in nineteen sixty two and sentenced to life
Speaker 1: imprisonment in nineteen sixty four. The state even kidnapped or
Speaker 1: killed some activists. So groups that organized around the ideology
Speaker 1: of the Black Consciousness movement rejected apartheid believed in black
Speaker 1: solidarity as a means to achieve liberation, rejected the notion
Speaker 1: that white people were superior, and embraced the value and
Speaker 1: power of black people. Politically, the word black was an
Speaker 1: inclusive term that constituted Indians, Colors, and Africans, though that
Speaker 1: usage did not initially catch on in the mainstream. Black
Speaker 1: consciousness required a shift in mindset where the term black
Speaker 1: was a positive, unifying identification for people of color that
Speaker 1: would encourage pride, and as the movement encouraged black leadership
Speaker 1: and self reliance, the phrase black man, you are on
Speaker 1: your own became its slogan that was radical. While many
Speaker 1: people who were against apartheid were inspired by the movement,
Speaker 1: others saw it and the S A s O as
Speaker 1: anti white. Regardless, the s A s O launched literacy, health, agricultural,
Speaker 1: and other community programs to better society, but also to
Speaker 1: stimulate notions of self empowerment. BECO became the publication's officer
Speaker 1: and started a series called I Write What I Like
Speaker 1: under the pseudonym Frank Talk. But soon the s A
Speaker 1: s O wanted to expand its reach by including non
Speaker 1: student adults. In the nineteen seventy two, the Black People's
Speaker 1: Convention was launched with the help of Vico, the Convention
Speaker 1: brought together about seventy black consciousness groups like the South
Speaker 1: African Students Movement, the National Association of Youth Organizations, and
Speaker 1: the Black Workers Project. Vico became the first president of
Speaker 1: the Convention, and that same year he was expelled from
Speaker 1: medical school for his activism. Vico also helped found the
Speaker 1: Black Community Programs, the purpose of which Vico described the
Speaker 1: following way. The black man is a defeated being who
Speaker 1: finds it very difficult to lift himself up by his bootstrings.
Speaker 1: He is alienated, alienated from himself, from his friends, and
Speaker 1: from society in general. He has made to live all
Speaker 1: the time concerned with the matters of existence, concerned with tomorrow.
Speaker 1: You know what shall I eat tomorrow? Now, we felt
Speaker 1: that we must attempt to defeat and break this kind
Speaker 1: of attitude to and still wants more a sense of
Speaker 1: human dignity within the black man. Now I shouldn't note
Speaker 1: here the reference to the black man solely. The attitudes
Speaker 1: of men in the Black Consciousness movement were the same
Speaker 1: as the attitudes of men in general. Women were typically
Speaker 1: excluded and becos discourse around black consciousness. Women were certainly
Speaker 1: a part of the movement, but they were largely acknowledged
Speaker 1: as support. Think of the emphasis on black manhood and
Speaker 1: the sexism happening in the Black Panther Party around the
Speaker 1: same time in the States. But the seventies is when
Speaker 1: the s A s O really gained ground. It called
Speaker 1: for Banto stand leaders to stop enabling oppression, rejected apartheids
Speaker 1: Bantu education system, and really pushed pride and black identity.
Speaker 1: As the s A s O became more radical and
Speaker 1: the government realized how much power it was gaining, Veco
Speaker 1: and the organization and other leaders became targets of state
Speaker 1: surveillance and silencing. We're going to take a quick break,
Speaker 1: but when we get back, Vico's vocal opposition of apartheid,
Speaker 1: support for black self determination and his leadership puts him
Speaker 1: in the sights of the apartheid government. Vico and the
Speaker 1: Black consciousness movements ideas around psychological liberation and black dignity
Speaker 1: are still relevant. Internalized racism and inferiority complexes affect self
Speaker 1: image and mental health to this day. Overcoming deeply ingrained
Speaker 1: thought processes is difficult and requires a lot of unlearning,
Speaker 1: but thinking differently is a key step towards acting differently,
Speaker 1: and society has shown that manipulation of thought and mandating
Speaker 1: ignorant are effective methods of oppression, and that knowledge and
Speaker 1: insight helped pave the path towards emancipation. Black education, pride,
Speaker 1: and self love have become important tenants and black folks
Speaker 1: journey of healing and reclamation. Yet saying things like black
Speaker 1: Lives Matter, advocating for black pride, and acknowledging the lingering
Speaker 1: effects of a discriminatory history are still controversial. We could
Speaker 1: argue and theorize all day about which activists and thought
Speaker 1: leaders were brought down through state sanctioned suppression and violence
Speaker 1: for their radical ideology, but the fact remains that people
Speaker 1: of color around the world have been systemically disadvantaged to
Speaker 1: the benefit of white people, and when that order has
Speaker 1: been disrupted, it's often been met with brutal penalties. Instead
Speaker 1: of conceding power, privileged and reputation for the advancement of
Speaker 1: society those at the top, it often rather suppressed opposition
Speaker 1: and deny progress to maintain the status quo. But what
Speaker 1: good does it do humanity to thoughtlessly or selfishly uphold
Speaker 1: harmful mindsets and systems Silencing people for intelligent dissent or
Speaker 1: difference is antithetical to the history of human progress. Where
Speaker 1: would we be without agitators and innovators. In March of
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three, the state banned Steve and confined him
Speaker 1: to the magisterial district of King Williams Town. Per his
Speaker 1: banning order, he went to his mother's house in Leytonville
Speaker 1: and he stayed there for a while. Though he could
Speaker 1: no longer work with the Black Community Programs in Durban,
Speaker 1: he set up a branch of the bc P and
Speaker 1: King Williamstown. He established a health clinic, helped with publications,
Speaker 1: and ran the BCP office in Resource Center. The state
Speaker 1: continued to surveil, arrest and detain Vico, but he was
Speaker 1: never convicted and he kept advising on political issues and
Speaker 1: working to unite black organizations. Meanwhile, the government was inflicting
Speaker 1: cruel retribution upon other Black consciousness and anti apartheid activists
Speaker 1: as well. Activists, mostly Booty Mangana was sentenced to five
Speaker 1: years in prison for allegedly recruiting two police officers to
Speaker 1: join the armed struggle. An activist, o Uncle pots Abram Tiro,
Speaker 1: was killed by a parcel bomb in early nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: four after he went into exile in Botswana. In June
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy six, students in Soweto protested Bantu education and
Speaker 1: the compulsory classroom use of Afrikaans, the language of the oppressor.
Speaker 1: The protest, which spread around the country and became known
Speaker 1: as the Soweto Uprising, resulted in the murder of hundreds
Speaker 1: of students when least open fire. The world was watching
Speaker 1: and many nations denounced the apartheid regime. Even so, the
Speaker 1: state stayed steady and its arresting and murdering of Black
Speaker 1: Consciousness leaders. A couple of months after the uprising, Steve
Speaker 1: was arrested and put in solitary confinement for a hundred
Speaker 1: and one days. In August eighteenth, nineteen seventy seven, Vico
Speaker 1: and his friend and activists Peter Jones, were stopped at
Speaker 1: a roadblock in the Eastern Cape Province. They were taken
Speaker 1: to police stations in Port Elizabeth, where they were tortured
Speaker 1: by security police. Vico was stripped and manacled for twenty days,
Speaker 1: then transferred to the Sunline building in Port Elizabeth. While detained,
Speaker 1: Steve was beaten severely and By September seven, he had
Speaker 1: gotten a brain hemorrhage, but the police still kept him
Speaker 1: making and chained in his cell. By the time he
Speaker 1: was finally taken to get medical care, Vico was in
Speaker 1: poor condition. He died on the night of September twelve.
Speaker 1: White journalist and friend of Steve's, Donald Woods said the
Speaker 1: following in an article he wrote after Steve's death, how
Speaker 1: I wish I could publish for all white South Africans
Speaker 1: his thoughts about their fears, prejudices, and timidities, and what
Speaker 1: he saw as the clear answers to these. But the government,
Speaker 1: through its banning orders, silenced all his public statements, and
Speaker 1: even in death he may not lawfully be quoted. He
Speaker 1: was imprisoned without trial more than once, experiencing solitary confinement
Speaker 1: several times. He always came out of such ordeals as
Speaker 1: tough as ever and as humorous about the interrogation session,
Speaker 1: and Woods went on to say, since the death of
Speaker 1: Steve Vico was announced, I have received gloating messages from
Speaker 1: white racists who rejoiced in his death and believe it
Speaker 1: will aid their cause. They don't realize to what extent
Speaker 1: his moderation was preserving the brittle peace in this country. Initially,
Speaker 1: the government said Vico died of a hunger strike, but
Speaker 1: a post mortem exam showed that he had died from
Speaker 1: brain injuries. About twenty thousand people attended Vico's funeral and
Speaker 1: King Williamstown that November. Years later, a post apartheid hearing
Speaker 1: by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission affirmed the abuse that
Speaker 1: led to his death and doctor's compliance in the death.
Speaker 1: Not long after Steve's death, the state banned eighteen organizations
Speaker 1: and many anti apartheid activists. By the early nineteen eighties,
Speaker 1: the black consciousness movement had fizzled out, and apartheid didn't
Speaker 1: end until nineteen when South Africa got a new constitution
Speaker 1: and a black majority government led by Nelson Mandela was installed.
Speaker 1: Steve was not the only person who advanced the black
Speaker 1: consciousness cause in South Africa, and he definitely was not
Speaker 1: the only one who vehemently and forcefully opposed apartheid. After
Speaker 1: his death, Vico was respected as a martyr for actively
Speaker 1: rejecting the barbaric apartheid regime and making black lives better
Speaker 1: through political and community work. He was instrumental in an
Speaker 1: ecosystem of doers who knew that apartheid was wrong and
Speaker 1: we're willing to put in the work to abolish it.
Speaker 1: Plenty of people did not see eye to eye with Vico,
Speaker 1: even people who were in the fight against apartheid with him.
Speaker 1: Some anti apartheid activists were corrupt and acted out of
Speaker 1: self interest. Some did not believe in lumping Asians and
Speaker 1: colors in South Africa under the label black. Many people
Speaker 1: in South Africa and beyond didn't not even think blackness
Speaker 1: was worthy of celebrating or uplifting. But when the stakes
Speaker 1: are so high for people like Vico, backing down are
Speaker 1: giving up is not an option. Not everyone feels responsible
Speaker 1: for or capable of solving huge problems like apartheid. We
Speaker 1: should recognize the amount of sacrifice it takes to be
Speaker 1: irradical with constructive concerns. I would venture to say that
Speaker 1: most people who do don't want to be hated or die.
Speaker 1: They just know it's a probable outcome of challenging power
Speaker 1: structures and thought patterns, backed by strong emotions. Vico did
Speaker 1: not fear death. It is better to die for an
Speaker 1: idea that will live than to live for an idea
Speaker 1: that will die. He said he was not willing to
Speaker 1: go into exile and leave the movement and people behind.
Speaker 1: Decolonizing minds and helping people find true humanity was the mission.
Speaker 1: Echoing Frederick Douglas, Vico wrote, we must accept that the
Speaker 1: limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those
Speaker 1: whom they oppress. We have to work for our own
Speaker 1: liberation and evolution, no matter the cost. If you are
Speaker 1: doing that work of resistance, you will make enemies who
Speaker 1: try to silence you. But what stories like Becos tell
Speaker 1: us is that we must remain open to ideas and
Speaker 1: modes of thought that we believe are wrong, far fetched,
Speaker 1: or impossible. When the goal is worthy, we must suspend
Speaker 1: some disbelief, challenge our own convictions, and demand justice. Andrew
Speaker 1: Howard is our producer. Holly Fry and Christopher hasiotis our
Speaker 1: our executive producers. If you're not already subscribed, you can
Speaker 1: make sure you never miss an episode by subscribing to
Speaker 1: the show on Apple podcast, to I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back next
Speaker 1: week with another episode of Unpopular M M