Week 3/23-27 Post 1

I was scheduled to blog during the final week of March, and since we are almost in June it would be best if I provided some context as towards what we where supposed to be studying during that week. In march we were finishing the last chapters of Kaffir Boy and specifically, we were supposed to read chapters 48-49 from the book. In these chapters it is revealed that Steve Biko died under police custody and I wanted to talk about some of these things. I find it completely absurd that during the Apartheid era in South Africa, Biko was arrested, questioned and tortured for no real reason whatsoever. We also watched a movie in class, Cry Freedom, that played the scene of Steve Biko's arrest, death and supposed cause of death. We all know that the police didn't even bother to write a real reason for the deaths of the hundreds of people they detained and eventually, they stopped caring and labeled everyone that died under their custody as suicide. After the massive beating that Biko had received he had fallen into a state of coma and was supposed to be transported to a hospital 680 miles away, naked, without any protection or medical care. Due to the harsh road and the multiple hits to the head he died way before he had made it to the hospital, and what was the police report for his death? A hunger strike. I find these many "classifications" by the police completely absurd, along with the whole Apartheid regimen. However, Steve Biko ideology's of "Black is Beautiful" paved way for the younger generation of African Americans living in South Africa to fight for their rights as human beings.