Contents - Steve Biko Foundation

Journal Issue #3: February 2012
Contents
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Biko’s Legacy Today
Nkosinathi Biko: SBF CEO
“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.”
- Steve Biko
I
Steve Biko Statue, Oxford Street, East London
n 1977, Steve Biko said, “You are either alive and proud or you are
dead, and when you are dead, you can’t care anyway.” A few
months later, at the age of 30, Biko was killed. December 18, 2011
marked what would have been his 65th birthday. In the 35 years since
his death, much has changed, but as the adage goes, much has also
stayed the same.
Today, South Africa is bedeviled by economic inequality, as
internationally the gap between the rich and poor continues to grow
at an alarming rate. Questions of equitable access to education,
health care and other social services continue to be a feature of global
discourse; as do deep social divides based on race. In the midst of
these crises, a new generation of young people is turning to Biko and
his legacy, not only for inspiration; but for a framework to understand
the challenges of the 21st century and to create tangible strategies to
overcome them. As his friend, and colleague Ben Khoapa wrote in the
second edition of the FrankTalk Journal,
“Biko had traversed a long, painful road of intellectual labour
and arrived at results that are instructive and inspiring. Yet if we leave
matters where destiny stopped him or occasionally quote him for
convenience, we would be eulogising him. It is much more fruitful to
build on his works, distil aspects of his contributions relevant to current
problems and work to further what he pioneered.”
In this, the third issue of the FrankTalk Journal, we bring you
reflections from South Africa and abroad on the contemporary
relevance of Biko’s legacy. We at SBF partner with a number of
entities around the world that utilize Biko’s example to advance social
justice. Among them are organizations such as the Steve Biko Housing
Association in Liverpool, which works to provide not only housing, but
a real sense of community to those from marginalized groups. Another
organization that puts Biko’s teachings into practice is the Steve Biko
Cultural Institute in Brazil, which this year celebrates its 20th anniversary
and has contributed an article outlining their work. Most importantly, it is
not only through formal organizations that Biko’s legacy is being lived out
daily, but in the lives of students, activists and concerned citizens whose
stories you will find here and online during the course of 2012.
Throughout the year SBF will celebrate Biko’s 65th birthday
through a series of initiatives. We invite you during this time to share
your own thoughts by submitting an article to us via [email protected];
or through the FrankTalk blog: sbffranktalk.blogspot.com. We also
invite you to dialogue with us through facebook
www.facebook.com/TheSteveBikoFoundation and
twitter: www.twitter.com/@BikoFoundation.
pg 1
Black Consciousness:
A Critical, Relevant and
Liberatory Angle of Vision
Lerato Seohatse
-Lerato Seohatse
B
iko rightly perceived, as many of us
have come to understand in time, that
his South Africa was a world characterised by unequal power relations among its
inhabitants. It was a world of white domination
and black subordination. Power relations were
marked along racial lines making South Africa
a white supremacist society.
It is now a well accepted fact that white
supremacy as it found expression in South
Africa was not a natural occurrence nor a
result of the inherent superiority of white
people; but a construct that was brought about
through coercion and persuasion. The state
apparatus was used to enforce laws and
policies that opened up opportunities for
white people at the expense of black people.
The laws were designed to place a black person
in a position of subservience relative to a white
person. If I may be blunt, these laws were
meant to produce white masters and black
servants. To be sure, by and large, these aims
were achieved, as we still live in a society where
whiteness is associated with privilege and
power and blackness with subservience.
Contemporary reality is thus a result of
coercive measures that were enforced by a
white supremacist apartheid regime.
The white supremacist apartheid system
did not only resort to coercion to enforce
racial inequalities but also to persuasion. It was,
arguably, Biko more than any other thinker and activist before who diagnosed this
element in the system. The diagnosis is
captured in one of his most celebrated quotes:
“The most potent weapon in the hands of the
oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”
This remark suggests that according
to Biko, domination was not just a matter of
laws and policies, but also operated in the
realm of ideas, beliefs, values, aesthetics
and so on. In South Africa, persuasion, or
ideological domination, was advanced through
history, fiction and all other forms of literature
found in institutions of learning whose content
“Black Consciousness
enables us to call into question
the dichotomies between
academic and non-academic
ways of knowing, between
universal and local knowledge,
between expert and nonexpert ways of knowing.
It offers us opportunities to
consider historically black
spaces as legitimate sites
for knowledge production.
It enables us to value African
intellectual traditions.”
- Steve Biko
was, and still is, dominated by Europe and its
achievements; where Africa is captured as an
appendage, sending the message to a black
learner that the only past that matters is that
pg 2
Steve Biko, Courtesy of the Daily Dispatch
of a white person. White supremacy was,
and still is, reinforced by the Christian religion
that represents African religious beliefs and
practices as demonic and that associates
them with Europe’s past pagan practices;
sending the message to an innocent black
congregant that Africa – and the black person
in particular – is still at the bottom of the ladder
of evolution. Furthermore, white supremacy
was, and still is, reinforced in the realm of the arts.
The white supremacist world still speaks of
black artistic products steeped in African
traditions as “valuable” traditional artifacts
evoking fascination and wonder; suggesting
that indigenous work can never achieve the
“art” status attributed to work produced in the
tradition of Europe. What about the white
person’s language as the language of
opportunity, privilege, and status? Ask the
black middle class why they put so much
pressure on their children to achieve fluency in
non-African languages.
All of these factors have historically
conspired to send the message that
blackness is inferior to whiteness; and that
in order for one to achieve a better life one
has to reject everything in the tradition of her
ancestors, placing herself firmly in the tradition
of Europe.
Where the liberal sense of freedom is
defined in terms of freedom to participate in
institutions and structures; as in being a student
in a university, if you so wish, and studying a
course of your choice; Biko’s notion of freedom
is more radical and substantive. It challenges us
to go beyond issues of access and participation
in a conventional sense, as of being students
and learning or being lecturers and teaching. It
“Black Consciousness
seeks to demonstrate
that black is not an
aberration from the
normal, which is white.”
- Steve Biko
challenges us to think ontologically and
enquire: “What” is the nature of the reality/
knowledge we are meant to “access” and “participate” in? Biko’s vision also challenges us to
think epistemologically and probe: How do
we come to know and accept that reality/
knowledge as valid? Black Consciousness,
furthermore, challenges us to grapple with the
question of power; who defines the reality/ knowledge presented to us and on whose terms are
we supposed to access and participate in
that reality? Thus, it is not just about who
is learning and who is lecturing in the
university; it is also about whose knowledge,
whose values, whose traditions, whose ideas,
whose mythologies, whose experiences are
captured in the prescribed reading and the
recommended text as well as in the broader
curriculum.
There is a growing awareness that what
passes for knowledge is, for the most part,
legitimated by power. Knowledge doesn’t
legitimate itself. The knowledge that has
passed for superior knowledge in South
Africa has historically been legitimated
by colonial powers. This knowledge has in
turn been used to determine and test what
is acceptable in institutions of higher
learning. Through these processes of
testing and determining the acceptability of
knowledge claims, black intellectual traditions
have been marginalized. It is these realities
that Biko was critical of when he said that
Black Consciousness: “seeks to demonstrate
that black is not an aberration from the normal,
which is white.”
Thus, to Biko, freedom starts with the
realization and angle of vision: that black is
pg 3
Detail of Steve Biko Statue at the Biko Monument,
Ginsberg, King William’s Town
not an aberration to whiteness. From a Black
Consciousness perspective, a liberatory
experience is not constituted by merely being
a student in an institution of higher learning
and gaining access to eurocentric canons and
knowledge systems.
Black Consciousness provides one
with an angle of vision, the realization that
the knowledge we receive is not universal
but is steeped in specific traditions. It
enables us to call into question the dichotomies
between academic and non-academic ways
of knowing, between universal and local
knowledge, between expert and non-expert
ways of knowing. It offers us opportunities
to consider historically black spaces as
legitimate sites for knowledge production.
It enables us to value African intellectual
traditions (in that I include values, mythologies,
beliefs, ideas and so on). Black Consciousness
further enables us to attach value to African
traditions, historically interrupted and
disrupted by the colonial machinery. We
can now see the tradition of the elders as
very important for our survival as black
people and the survival of the human
species. We can now boldly say that for
clarity of understanding within the African
context, you need to place your ideas within particular African knowledge traditions.
These traditions start to become an important
angle of reference for us. The challenge that
Black Consciousness further poses for those
who dare to be conscious is that of weaving
up all the broken pieces and fragments in
the disrupted black people’s traditions into
coherent discourses that can liberate how
we, black people firstly think about ourselves
and about the broader reality. This resonates
with Biko’s remark:
“Black Consciousness… seeks to infuse
the black community with a newly found pride in
themselves; their effort, their value systems, their
cultures, their religion, their outlook of life.”
It must be said that this is not about going
back to a primordial past or a golden age but
more than anything about affirming our heritage
and in the process, affirming ourselves. This
should also ultimately liberate conceptions of
reality and systems of knowledge that, thus far,
have been impoverished by the marginalization
of African intellectual traditions.
It was these realities that Biko was
responding to when he campaigned for self
definition. Thus, to Biko, defining oneself
as a black person is an act of resistance.
It’s an attempt to resist external oppressive
notions and definitions of black people that were
advanced by the white supremacist powers. It is
also about agency, the agency to create rather
than be created. It is only through this agency,
when a black person has become a subject in
history that a true synthesis can be achieved. In
a world of Black Consciousness, we are not exotic objects of white men’s fascination, but people with a sense of past, a sense of history and a
substantial sense of self.
The issues raised shouldn’t be taken to
suggest that no gains have been achieved so far
in the struggle for socio-political change in South
Africa; certainly, the laws of the country have
changed and a black person can live and study
where she wishes if she can afford it. Nonetheless, the black person is still not a subject and
thus, in post-apartheid South Africa, a black
person still hasn’t achieved substantive freedom.
In The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire,
the Brazilian educationalist, who inspired Biko,
warns us:
“We cannot enter the struggle as objects in
order to later become subjects.”
This quotation captures Biko’s emphasis on
the primacy of ideological freedom. And there
lies the power of Black Consciousness; in the
realization that true freedom lies in a black
person being a subject in history rather an
object. And this is not just a matter of laws and
policies but a frame of mind, an angle of vision.
References:
Biko, S. 2004. I Write What I Like.
Picador Africa: South Africa.
Freire, P. 2006. Pedagogy of the Oppressed,
30th Anniversary ed. New York: Continuum.
pg 4
The Contemporary
Relevance of Steve Biko
Dani Cooper
-Dani Cooper
B
iko’s continued relevance in South
Africa today is found in the constantly
evolving construction of identity. Within
this evolution, his relevance is found in the ways
in which we choose to communicate with each
other, within different races and classes as well
as in relations between government and civil
society. Most importantly, it is found in the discrepancies which exist between the rich and
poor, black and white, male and female, scared
and safe in society, and the solutions which can
be identified in each of these juxtapositions.
Steve Biko continues to be a source of
inspiration in my life and work, as he is for
many young South Africans. Most often
“inspiration” describes a state of stimulation, of
excitement, of imagination. Biko’s writing and
ideas do not only inspire me in that sense, as
I find myself grounded by his vision. The ways
in which Biko viewed society, community,
identity, race, himself, and the people around
him were both clear-sighted and resolutely
uncompromising. Through his perspective
I am able to see a way forward for South
Africa which does not include continued
racism in the name of capitalistic growth, nor
allowing citizens to be left behind in the development of our new and emerging economy by
resorting to nepotism and patronage.
Biko’s contribution to the ways in which
South Africans construct their own identities
remains invaluable in a society where we have
yet to reach consensus about who we choose
to become as individuals, as well as a nation.
Are we a unified, progressive society in which
we believe that all who share our land deserve
rights and respect? Is that something we
convince ourselves and others of? Do we
incorporate our heritage or reject it in order
to take part in a “global village”? What does
inclusion mean and what are the implications
for participation? These are decisions we need
to take on a daily basis, if we are to move
forward as a cohesive society.
“Biko’s contribution to the
ways in which South Africans
construct their own identities
remains invaluable in a
society where we have yet
to reach consensus about
who we choose to become
as individuals.” - Dani Cooper
In addition, Biko’s writings on identity and
the construction thereof offer a critical solution
for reconciliation in this country. “It becomes
more necessary to see the truth as it is if you realise that the only vehicle for change are these
people who have lost their personality. The first
step therefore is to make the black man come
to himself; to pump back life into his empty
shell; to infuse him with pride and dignity, to
remind him of his complicity in the crime of
allowing himself to be misused and therefore
pg 5
Steve Biko, Courtesy of the Daily Dispatch
letting evil reign supreme in the country
of his birth.” If we are to truly see progress as
a country, and not just in the upper classes,
we must engage with the fact that for many
South Africans, “democracy” and “freedom”
have made minimal differences in their lives.
To instil a sense of pride back into people who
have probably never been exposed to the idea
that they are valuable and important is to inject
power into their lives.
Many people argue that Black Consciousness is for black people - I beg to differ. The idea
that we may create a South Africa in which it is
not only acceptable to acknowledge race, but
is in fact essential to do so for the sake of
healing and progress, is arguably the only
way we will create a truly non-racial society.
Non-racialism is currently a privilege of the
upper classes. It is blissfully easy to reject the idea of race while living in splendour; perhaps not so easy when considering the fact that the link between
black and poor has remained, for the most part,
the same for the last 17 years. While people
of different races have massively different
resources,
lifestyles
and
opportunities
afforded to them, the barriers of colour remain
immovable.
Biko’s strength as a person and as
an activist was the way in which he put his
ideas and views into practice. “The blacks
are tired of standing at the touchlines to
witness a game that they should be playing. They want to do things for themselves
and all by themselves.” What we sorely lack
in our system of governance is simply the
ability to put into action the values which we
supposedly hold dear as a society. We wave
our beloved constitution around for the world
“Many people argue that Black
Consciousness is for black people I beg to differ. The idea that we may
create a South Africa in which it is
not only acceptable to acknowledge
race, but is in fact essential to do so
for the sake of healing and progress,
is arguably the only way we will
create a truly non-racial society.”
- Dani Cooper
to see, and yet we live in one of the most
unequal societies in the world. We loudly praise
our democracy and yet year in, year out, we
vote for the same leaders who seem to be
getting richer as the majority festers in poverty.
If each South African committed simply to
achieving what Biko did in his lifetime, in terms of
his community development work, we would be
a very different, and I believe a better off, country.
I do not take for granted the progress
we have made in the last 17 years, nor do I
suggest that our leaders are without successes
to their names. However, as young South
Africans we have created a culture of
complacency. We no longer feel the need to take
part in the ways in which we define ourselves,
nor do we see governance or leadership as a
role to assume ourselves. Furthermore we
do not value education and healthcare,
community and civil society as invaluable
assets to be shared amongst all of us.
The ability of Biko and the Black
Consciousness Movement (BCM) to push
boundaries, ask difficult questions, and shout
when everyone else is shushing, is something
that our democracy will never cease to benefit
from. In the debates, engagement and
contestation that are seen in the limited circles
of government and civil society interactions,
we also see the spirit of Biko, his work and
the BCM. To encourage and develop this spirit
remains critically important for the development
of our democracy demonstrating how Biko
remains relevant in South Africa today.
References:
Biko, S. “We Blacks,” in I Write What I Like. 1978.
Biko, S. “Letter to SRC Presidents,” in I Write
What I Like. 1978.
pg 6
Steve Biko Cultural Institute,
Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
Maintaining the Legacy of
Bantu Stephen Biko in the
African Diaspora
Alicia M. Sanabria
-Alicia M. Sanabria
T
he Steve Biko Cultural Institute in
Salvador, Bahia, Brazil is named in homage and tribute to the life, teachings and
actions of the South African leader, who is world
renowned for his struggle against apartheid and
his teachings on Black Consciousness.
Salvador is the capital of the state of
Bahia in the northeast coastal region of
Brazil. The city of Salvador served as Brazil’s first capital from 1549 to 1776. The 2000
census lists Salvador’s population as 2.5
million, of which 80% are said to be individuals
of African descent. Salvador has one of
the largest populations of people of African
descent in the African Diaspora.
On July 31, 1992, inspired by Steve
Biko’s ideologies, a group of Afro-Brazilian
university students initiated academic
activities in a small room in the Federal
University of Bahia’s student union,
establishing the Steve Biko Cultural Institute. The Institute was established to fight
racism through concrete means: educational activism. The idea was to create an
educational cooperative that would prepare low income black youths for university. The plan of action was to prepare
them for the vestibular, or tertiary entrance
exam, while stimulating consciousness and
a sense of citizenship. In the words of Silvio
Cunha Passos, a founding director of the
institute, “I believe that, through education,
we can become equal in the face of the
racism that permeates Bahia’s society.”
Initially, many of the student participants
had received inadequate public school
educations. In 1992, classes started with 20
students and the success rate of the group
when they took the vestibular was as high
as 70%. The satisfactory results of the first
year lead to an expansion of the course in
subsequent years.
The Steve Biko Cultural Institute not only
prepares black students for university, and
“…a group of Afro-Brazilian
university students initiated
academic activities in a small
room in the Federal University
of Bahia’s student union,
establishing the Steve Biko
Cultural Institute.”
- Alicia M. Sanabria
successful careers, but for life in general. In
recognition of its work, in 1999, the Institute
received second place in the Human Rights
Prize, in the non-profit organization category,
granted by the President of the Federal
Republic of Brazil. The Steve Biko Cultural
Institute has served as a model within
Brazil and has lent support to innumerable
pg 7
Steve Biko: University of Natal SRC, 1966-1967
groups interested in starting educational
cooperatives for blacks in other parts of
the country.
“Our dream and social responsibility is to
maintain and improve upon the work of the
institution,” says Passos. He also states that
as a founding director, his work with the
educational cooperative has been an exercise
in learning by doing. It is affirmative
action in practice by the black militant
movement of Brazil. The Steve Biko Cultural
Institute in Salvador, Bahia is a vital resource
with a challenging mission of empowering
marginalized blacks to access higher
education and preparing black students for
careers in the hard sciences, mathematics
and engineering. The Institute works to
overcome economic, social and political
barriers for disenfranchised black youth, while
also assisting them to develop self-esteem
and an African rooted identity, ultimately
constructing a sense of solidarity with the
black empowerment struggle in Africa, Brazil
and other African Diasporas.
The Steve Biko Institute has expanded
its programs for blacks throughout its twenty
year history. The programming includes
training and lectures in human rights, black
aesthetics, and career preparation in engineering, medicine and law; professions in which
there are small percentages of blacks. The
Institute is also committed to establishing the
first black university in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.
In September 2007, Silvio Cunha Passos,
“Passos spoke of Steve Biko’s
influence across the Atlantic
as a student organizer and a
proponent of education for
Blacks. It was this that led the
educational cooperative to adopt
his name.” - Alicia M. Sanabria
the Executive Director of Steve Biko Cultural
Institute in Salvador, Brazil addressed participants in Consciousness, Agency and the
African Development Agenda, a conference
commemorating the 30th anniversary of
Biko’s death in Cape Town, South Africa.
Passos spoke of Steve Biko’s influence
across the Atlantic as a student organizer and
a proponent of education for blacks which had
led the educational cooperative to adopt
his name.
In October 2007 Nkosinathi Biko, the
CEO of the Steve Biko Foundation, was
received with cheers at the auditorium of the
Federal University of Bahia in Salvador. He
provided the keynote address at the fifteenth
anniversary celebration of the Steve Biko
Cultural Institute. He spoke of Steve Biko’s
anti-apartheid struggle, black consciousness
and educational activism. During his brief
stay in the city of Salvador he was able to visit
the Steve Biko Cultural Institute and witness
that Biko’s legacy was being maintained in
one of the African Diaspora’s largest cities.
The Steve Biko Cultural Institute in
Brazil lives up to its namesake’s legacy by
being about respect, self-esteem, hope,
vision,
empowerment,
and
accessing
constitutional rights for Blacks in Brazil.
The Institute opens paths for future
generations to obtain equality in Brazilian
society as the great leader Steve Biko
fought for and believed in for his fellow Black
South Africans.
pg 8
A Tribute to
Bantu Stephen Biko –
To Mark the 65th
Anniversary of his Birth
Roy Trivedy
-Roy Trivedy
O
n October 15th 1977, a month
after Steve Biko’s death in detention,
The Times (a national newspaper
in the UK) published a full page spread
titled Black Consciousness and the Quest
for a True Humanity. The article reproduced
some of Steve’s writing. It summarised
the origins of the Black Consciousness
Movement, its historic role in the struggle
against apartheid and the fight for
liberation and freedom. It explained the
economic basis of racism and the way in
which social, political and cultural means
were systematically used by the state to
subjugate the black majority in South
Africa. The article also talked about the
critical role of youth and the churches in
the struggle for freedom and about
international solidarity.
I was 17 at the time and studying Economics, Politics and Sociology as a sixth
form student at school. I had come to the
UK from Kenya, eight years before this, with
my family. A family that had its origins in
India but had spent the best part of three
generations in East Africa with dual KenyanBritish nationality. In 1969, my parents had
chosen to migrate to the UK and become
naturalised British citizens. As a teenager I
was aware of my Indian and African roots. I
was also aware of the anti-colonial struggles
in many parts of globe, the importance of
fighting oppression wherever it occurred, of
solidarity and for standing up for the values
of justice and liberty.
“Steve Biko’s words are as
relevant and meaningful
today as they were when
he wrote them.” - Roy Trivedy
I had seen television programmes
previously about Steve Biko’s death but
prior to reading the article, I had not
been aware of the Black Consciousness
Movement, what it stood for and why it was
important. I read and re-read the article
several times over that day and have
returned to it subsequently. The same article
was later published in the book I Write What
I Like, Heinemann 1978. The chapter Black
Consciousness and the Quest for a True
Humanity states:
“For the liberals, the thesis is apartheid,
the antithesis is non racialism and the
synthesis is very feebly defined. They want
to tell blacks that they see integration
as the ideal solution. Black Consciousness
defines the situation differently. The thesis
pg 9
Steve Biko Garden of Remembrance: A National
Heritage Site in Ginsberg Township.
“Steve Biko’s words had a
profound effect on me.
They helped shape my
personal outlook and political
beliefs. They also played a key
role in helping me decide what
I wanted to contribute in life.”
- Roy Trivedy
is in strong white racism and therefore
the antithesis must….be strong solidarity
amongst blacks. Out of these two situations
we can hope to reach some kind of balance,
a new humanity where power politics will have
no place...
“Freedom is the ability to define oneself
with one’s possibilities held back not by the
power of other people over one but only
by one’s relationship to God and to natural
surroundings...”
Steve Biko’s words had a profound
effect on me.
They helped shape my
personal outlook and political beliefs.
They also played a key role in helping me
decide what I wanted to contribute in life. At
University I studied law and was active in the
anti-apartheid movement. Since 1981 I have
worked in a variety of roles contributing to
international development in various parts
of the world including Malawi, India,
Mozambique, Central Asia, Tanzania and the
UK. In all of my roles for the past 30 years,
I have also sought to work with Black and
Ethnic Minority communities (including tribal
communities).
Through my work and activities, I have
sought to practice Steve Biko’s quest for a
true humanity:
“We have set out on a quest for a true
humanity, and somewhere on a distant
horizon we can see the glittering prize.”
Steve Biko was a brilliant thinker, a
truly courageous freedom fighter and an
inspirational leader. He played a key role
in the fight against apartheid but his words
also influenced many people, including
myself, across the world.
At a time when the world faces a
multitude of unprecedented challenges, we all
need to continue to strive for a true humanity.
Steve Biko’s words are as relevant and
meaningful today as they were when he
wrote them.
pg 10
Roy Trivedy
Lerato Seohatse
Alicia M. Sanabria
Dani Cooper
Nkosinathi Biko
Contributors’
Biographies
Nkosinathi Biko is the Chief Executive Officer of the Steve
Biko Foundation. He is a founder member of the board of
trustees and chaired the Steve Biko Foundation for the first
five years. Mr. Biko graduated from the University of Cape
Town where he pursued a Bachelor of Social Science
(Economics) and a Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing
Management. He studied Property Development and
Finance through the University of the Witwatersrand. He is
also a published writer and speaker and has given lectures on
the international circuit.
Lerato Seohatse is a founder and member of a
Wits University based student body called the Black
Conscious Collective. He is also serving as a board
member of the Kwesukela Storytelling Academy;
an NGO that promotes the use of storytelling as an
art-form, education medium and resource for addressing
the social issues of our time.
Lerato is currently
based at the Wits Writing Centre as a student writer in
residence and mainly writes on the subject of Black
Consciousness in South Africa and abroad.
Dani Jennifer Nolwazi Vajifdar-Cooper is a woman
with as varied a world view as her name would
suggest. Her sensibilities are decidedly liberal and
empathetic yet her sense of humour can hardly be described
as Politically Correct. She has friends in so many different
groups that referring to her as a social butterfly is an
understatement of heroic proportions. Her enjoyment of the
vibrancy of children and teens has led her into a career as a
teacher where she hopes to spread her passion for history.
Acknowledgements
The Steve Biko Foundation thanks all
of those who made contributions to
this issue of the FrankTalk Journal and
the Daily Dispatch for providing the
images found on pages 3 and 6.
The Foundation also thanks the Open
Society Foundation for South Africa for
their generous financial support of the
FrankTalk initiative and making this
publication possible.
Alicia Maria Sanabria, MPS was born in Havana, Cuba,
raised in New York City and lives in Salvador, Bahia,
Brazil. She is an Africanist with a focus on African descendents
in Latin America; a cultural and human rights activist; a
cultural producer, writer, photographer and lecturer; and acts
as a cross-cultural consultant amongst global Africans. She
founded African Matrix C³ to promote human and economic
development strategies in Africa and the African Diaspora.
Roy Trivedy is Head of the Civil Society Department for
the Department for International Development (DFID). He
was the Team Leader for the UK’s ‘Building our Common
Future’ White Paper on international development in 2009.
He has previously worked for DFID in Tanzania, Central
Asia and the Caucasus, and on peace-building and conflict resolution in various parts of Africa. Roy joined DFID after 20 years of working for non-governmental organisations
in the UK, Mozambique, India and Malawi. He studied at the
Institute for Development Studies, Sussex.
pg 11
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