I Write What I Like

Chapters 17-19 stand out as the most outward-oriented of Biko’s book, addressing people outside South Africa. Chapter 17 is a memo for US Senator Dick Clark; Chapter 18 is an interview Biko gave to a European journalist; and Chapter 19 consists of excerpts from an interview Biko gave to an American businessman. All three chapters aim to alert the international community to the plight of Black South Africans, but each is inflected in a different way.

Chapter 17 focuses narrowly on the US because it addresses an American senator. Biko is clear and direct, despite writing the memo shortly after his release from 101 days in detention, which he spent in solitary confinement without access to books. His lucidity is apparent not just in the cohesiveness of his ideas, but also in their organization, which he presents as bullet points. Biko enumerates the ways in which the US can support Azania, exhibiting a deep knowledge of American foreign policy and a clear vision for future action. Divestment in South Africa, the rejection of Bantustans as Tools of Government Control, and support for Black leaders detained by the regime are among the actions he urges the US to take to pressure the apartheid government.

The need for US support, however, does not spare Senator Clark from criticism. Biko calls out American foreign policy, specifying that the US “has played a shameful role in her relations with our country” (139). His critique becomes more pointed later in the memo: “America’s foreign policy seems to have been guided by a selfish desire to maintain an imperialistic stranglehold on this country irrespective of how the blacks were made to suffer” (140).

Chapter 18 is as clear and direct as Chapter 17, but its content is less narrowly focused. Addressing a European journalist, Biko seized the opportunity to introduce his organization to a broad European audience. Revisiting the content of his earlier writings, Biko critiques NUSAS and other white student organizations, justifies the formation of SASO, objects to Bantustans, and describes how the BCM eases Black fear by empowering Black students to speak out against the government, even in the face of violence. He cites examples of violence to convey the brutality of South Africa’s regime: “Since last June something like 400 young blacks were killed. 499 actually” (146).

In addition to revisiting topics from preceding chapters, Chapter 17 introduces new issues, notably that of Azania’s political system. Biko describes his vision for a non-racial, egalitarian future, specifying that South Africa will be socialist:

For meaningful change to appear there needs to be an attempt at reorganising the whole economic pattern and economic policies within this particular country. BPC believes in a judicious blending of private enterprise which is highly diminished and state participation in industry and commerce […] Now in that kind of judicious blending of the two systems we hope to arrive at a more equitable distribution of wealth (149).

Chapter 19, among the most personal of the book, focuses on violence and death. Addressing an American interviewer, Biko describes the beatings he experienced during his first detention: “We had a boxing match the first day I was arrested. Some guy tried to clout me with a club” (152). Biko not only conveys the brutality of the South African police, but also emphasizes his resistance: “I went into [my interrogator] like a bull. I think he was under instructions to take it so far and no further, and using open hands so that he doesn’t leave any marks on the face” (152). Instead of allowing police to beat him without leaving marks, Biko fought back and disrupted their plans: “If they beat me up, it’s to my advantage […] I’m not going to allow them to carry out their program faithfully […] If I react sharply, equally and oppositely, to the first clap, they are not going to be able to systematically count the next four claps, you see. It’s a fight” (152-53). Biko fought back again when he was detained several months later, only to be killed by his police captors.