Biko’s book launched in isiXhosa to attract wider audience

A new isiXhosa edition of Steve Biko’s seminal workI Write What I Likehas been launched, marking 80 years since his birth and bringing his writing to a wider African-language audience. The relaunch comes at a time when parts of the Eastern Cape and wider South Africa have seen renewed efforts to restore indigenous place names, with speakers at the event linking the translation to broader questions of cultural identity and access. The book, first published in 1977 afterBiko’s death, is a collection of his writings and letters from 1969 to 1972, setting out the ideas of the Black Consciousness Movement.

The new edition, titledNdibhala Intando Yam, is the first time the work has been made available in Biko’s mother tongue. The launch took place at the Steve Biko Centre in Qonce on Human Rights Day, drawing supporters, academics and members of the public for what organisers described as both a literary and cultural milestone. Biko, founder of the Black Consciousness Movement, was one of the most influential political thinkers of the anti-apartheid struggle.

Through his writing and activism, he challenged the psychological effects of apartheid, urging black South Africans to reject internalised oppression and assert their identity and dignity. He died in police custody in 1977 at the age of 30 after being detained by apartheid police. Biko sustained fatal head injuries during interrogation, with his death later becoming a symbol of the brutality of the apartheid state and drawing widespread international condemnation.

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He was born in King William’s Town, now Qonce, where the Steve Biko Foundation remains active. The Daily Dispatch reported extensively on his detention and death under then editor Donald Woods, a close friend and ally of Biko. Woods was later forced into exile after exposing the circumstances of Biko’s death, recounting their relationship in his bookBiko, which formed the basis of the 1987 filmCry Freedom.

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