{"id":1563,"date":"2014-07-18T20:13:55","date_gmt":"2014-07-18T20:13:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.damne.net\/?p=1563"},"modified":"2026-01-19T23:27:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T23:27:13","slug":"biko-a-biography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.damne.net\/?p=1563","title":{"rendered":"Biko: A Biography"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-1564 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.damne.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/9780624054139.jpg\" alt=\"9780624054139\" width=\"169\" height=\"265\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.damne.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/9780624054139.jpg 281w, https:\/\/www.damne.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/9780624054139-191x300.jpg 191w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 169px) 100vw, 169px\" \/>by Xolela Mangcu<\/p>\n<p>The first comprehensive biography of an exceptional and inspirational leader who changed South African history. As leading anti-apartheid activist and thinker, Biko created Black Consciousness, which has resonance to this day. His death by torture, at the hands of the police, robbed South Africa of one of its most gifted leaders. Biko\u2019s intellectual legacy cannot be overestimated.<\/p>\n<p>The chapters include:<\/p>\n<p>-Self-respect and dignity as twin themes of Biko\u2019s thinking<br \/>\n-Biko\u2019s childhood in Ginsberg; his father\u2019s early death and his relationship with his brother<br \/>\n-Lovedale College, discovering politics \u2013 and expulsion<br \/>\n-Biko\u2019s student years in Durban, his disillusion with white left politics and dalliances with women<br \/>\n-SASO and Black Consciousness, new thinking on old problems &#8212; moving towards radicalism<br \/>\n-The awkward issues of gender and sexism, Biko\u2019s wife Ntsiki and his relationship with Mamphela Ramphele<br \/>\n-Biko\u2019s impact on the student uprising of June 1976<br \/>\n-Dissension in the ranks<br \/>\n-The King William\u2019s Town years: Starting a health project and defiance. Biko\u2019s death.<br \/>\n-After Biko \u2013 his impact and the problems in current South African politics.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Xolela Mangcu <\/strong>is an internationally respected analyst and commentator and often quoted in South African media. Based at the University of Cape Town, he is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C. He was Executive Director of the Human Sciences Research Council and has held fellowships at Harvard University; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Rockefeller Foundation. He also chairs the prestigious Sunday Times Alan Paton Awards.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mangcu has written weekly columns for the Sunday Independent, Business Day and the Weekender, and is a guest analyst for the BBC, CNN and Al-Jazeera. He has authored and co-authored six books, the latest Becoming Worthy Ancestors: Archive, Identity and Public Deliberation in Democratic South Africa.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Sunday Times has called Mangcu \u2018possibly the most prolific public intellectual in South Africa.\u2019 Peter Vale, professor of humanities at the University of Johannesburg described him as \u2018the most interesting, certainly the most engaging voice amongst the new generation of public intellectuals in South Africa.\u2019<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mangcu grew up alongside Steve Biko and in writing this book is fulfilling a life\u2019s dream.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">NB Publishers: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nb.co.za\/Books\/12563\">http:\/\/www.nb.co.za\/Books\/12563<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Xolela Mangcu<\/p>\n<p>The first comprehensive biography of an exceptional and inspirational leader who changed South African history. As leading anti-apartheid activist and thinker, Biko created Black Consciousness, which has resonance to this day. His death by torture, at the hands of the police, robbed South Africa of one of its most gifted leaders. Biko\u2019s intellectual legacy cannot be overestimated.[&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.damne.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1563"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.damne.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.damne.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.damne.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.damne.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1563"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.damne.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5017,"href":"https:\/\/www.damne.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1563\/revisions\/5017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.damne.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.damne.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.damne.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}