Friday, 12 September 2025
Kgosi Mampuru Correctional Centre
We, the generation of Black Power Pan-Afrikanist activist-scholars and truth seekers, stand in profound gratitude to the elders and pathfinders who have safeguarded our liberation history with care, courage, and unyielding commitment.
In 1995, in direct defiance of the logics of erasure employed by the so-called democratic government, MoAfrika ’Tiyani Lybon Mabasa, then leader of the Azanian People’s Organisation, courageously reclaimed the Biko Cell at Kgosi Mampuru Correctional Centre for collective memorialisation. This decisive act halted the state’s attempt to repurpose this sacred site for common incarceration, a symbolic violence designed to silence the memory of Bantu Steve Biko and the Black Consciousness Movement.
Milan Kundera’s reminder in The Book of Laughter and Forgetting that “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting” encapsulates the essence of the decolonial act described here. Kundera’s words remind us that memory is both a personal and collective battlefield where oppressive forces attempt to erase histories, identities, and truths in order to consolidate power. The erasure of liberation icons and the silencing of Black Power Pan-Afrikanist histories are precisely what this struggle resists. Reclaiming memory is a revolutionary act, a refusal of systematic forgetting imposed by white settler narratives and colonial states, and by the ANC’s marginalisation of Black Consciousness narratives. By preserving and honouring these histories, as exemplified by the reclamation of the Biko Cell and the steadfast work of guardian leaders, we protect our identity and reclaim our power, ensuring that these truths guide us in the pursuit of justice, liberation, and genuine decolonisation.
Occupied Azania has produced many icons of Black Power Pan-Afrikanist resistance, including Mangaliso Sobukwe, whose legacy continues to be denied rightful recognition. Sobukwe’s cell on Robben Island, a national commemorative site attracting global audiences, is relegated to an afterthought for visitors. His home, law office, and sites of banishment in Galeshewe remain neglected and excluded from national heritage, and his family home in Mofolo suffers systematic erasure.
This neglect extends to the family of the slain Black Consciousness martyr and Vice President of the Black People’s Convention, Mthuli ka Shezi, brutally murdered by the apartheid regime. Today, his grandchildren and family live without the stability or recognition afforded to descendants of ANC stalwarts. His house in Thembisa, vulnerable to the harsh realities of Black life and fractured by disputes, mirrors a broader pattern of erasure where the ANC deliberately buries the history and legacy of Black Consciousness and Pan-Afrikanist movements.
Under the leadership of Dr Hlulani Mabasa, the BCM-U has courageously brought the plight of the Shezi home to light. This affirms that while the ANC may attempt to bury our histories, our leaders refuse to stand idle as our collective memory is consigned to political oblivion. This year’s joint commemoration of Biko Day thus marks a profound moment of resistance, a struggle of memory against forgetting.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o teaches us in Decolonising the Mind, colonialism was as much a conquest of memory and imagination as it was of land and labour. To remember, to speak in our own voices, and to honour our martyrs is to reclaim selfhood and agency against the forces of coloniality. Memory, therefore, is not nostalgia; it is resistance. It is the foundation of genuine liberation.
M’Afrika Hugo ka Canham reminds us that the graves of our people are sacred ground, demanding that we hold memory as a living covenant with the dead. To honour them requires not sentiment but commitment – a radical fidelity to their struggle for freedom. We are therefore called to honour the spirit of Biko from the last place he was captured before he took his final breath. BlackHouse Kollective (BHK) will stand alongside BCM-U and AZAPO in this year’s commemoration, marking what we hope will be the beginning of a new chapter of collective remembrance within the Azanian family.
We extend heartfelt gratitude to Dr Hlulani Mabasa, current President of BCM-U, whose leadership has unified the Black Consciousness family in dignified remembrance of Bantu Steve Biko. His stewardship embodies the resilience, unity, and revolutionary spirit that continues to pulse through our movement.
Long live the defiant spirit of Bantu Steve Biko and all comrades who refuse erasure. We honour their sacrifices and draw inspiration from their truths, reclaimed with care and courage.
We call upon all who cherish freedom, justice, and the quest for historical truth to join us in solidarity this Biko Day.
❤️ Black Love!
???? Black Power!
???? #BikoLives
