A brief biographical history of Stephen Bantu Biko

Biko was born on 18 December 1946 in King Williams Town. He was the youngest of three children. His father was a government-employed clerk and his mother a domestic worker. Biko’s father died when he was four years old.

Biko had shown a keen interest in anti-apartheid politics from a young age. His parents had placed an emphasis on the importance of education as the only means to a career and some level of independence. Jucks suggests: “Biko’s pursuit of education suggests that early influences, notably that of his parents, and subsequently that of his teachers, consistently supported education as a promising means toward a better life and, presumably, the gradual transformation of society ”. Biko was expelled from his first school in Lovedale for what was called ‘anti-establishment’ behaviour. Despite the Lovedale school being one of those under Verwoerd’s Bantu Education, Biko was increasingly exposed to a worldview or an ideology that promoted the importance of education. It is suggested that his expulsion from Lovedale contributed to his political orientation and resulted in his resentment of oppressive white authority .

Juckes, J.T. Opposition in South Africa: The leadership of Z.K. Matthews, Nelson Mandela, and Stephen Biko (USA, 1995), p. 119
Ibid., p. 121.