24 March 1997


      RI-808i  '"Be nothing" is NOT survival - Steve Biko'


from Ambassador for Mankind


Message # RI-808i for Internet



I like to share with you a letter I got today from Kim Baker
 when I queried her about her excellent quote:

      "The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind
       of the oppressed.    - Steve Biko"

'Who is Steve Biko?'

      "Steve Biko was a South African activist against the
       apartheid regime in South Africa. He was the first
       black person to state that the reason apartheid was
       able to be enforced so successfully, was because black
       people believed themselves to be inferior. He awoke
       black people, made them realize that it *is* possible
       for them to take the power, and gain self-respect.

      "He started art schools, and crafts and industries,
       night-class schools, all designed to bring black people
       back to an awareness of their own dignity, and humanity,
       and right to create. Black people had had all [their]
       inclination to create, suppressed out of them. It became
       a survival strategy to "be nothing", as perverse as that
       sounds - in other words, if they "were nothing", then they
       wouldn't get beaten, tortured, even killed. Steve Biko
       said:  "No, the hell with that, we can BE something!".

      "He was regarded by the then South African government as
       *the* most dangerous man to them, so they detained him,
       tortured him, and he eventually died at their hands in a
       prison cell, on 12 September, 1977.

      "Peter Gabriel, the British musician, wrote a very powerful
       song about him, which was first sung at a Festival to
       protest apartheid, in Britain, and his murder was one of
       the things that really brought the evil of apartheid to
       the world's attention.

      "There is a book, called "I write what I like", by Steve
       Biko, published by Bowerdean Publishing, London, copyright
       1996, which has re-produced his main thoughts, and gives
       an idea of what he saw.


       Much love,

       Kim"



Koos Nolst Trenite - Ambassador for Mankind

Copyright 1997 by Koos Nolst Trenite


Personal Web-page:
  http://ArtOrg.com


Personal Web-Library:
  http://Art-Org.com


References (available at the Library "http://Art-Org.com"):

  (bulletins about society)

  RI-750i  'Crimes are not motivated by money' of 1 Dec 1996
  RI-602i  'Definition of Power' of 20 June 1996
  RI-705i  'Society Resurgence, Use of Rules' of 9 Oct 1996

  (about art)

  RI-019Ri  'Artists and Ethics' of 10 Sept 1992
  RI-704Ri 'Real Art is not hard to understand' of 30 Sept 1996

  (about religion)

  RI-379Ri 'Religious Tolerance' of 1 Nov 1995
  RI-738Si 'Christianity - Love, and Guilt solved' shortened 22 Dec 96

  (about sanity)

  RI-449i  'A Rule For Freedom' of 14 Jan 1996
  RI-714i  'State of Sanity, Definition of' of 24 Oct 1996
  RI-537i  'The Right to Demand Awareness' of 15 Apr 1996


  (about helping and understanding people)

  RI-592i  'How To Look At People' of 5 June 1996
  RI-631i  'Definition of "Woman"' of 12 July 1996

  RI-771i  'Use of Telepathy' of 4 Jan 1997

  RI-734i  'Orienting Children' of 13 Nov 1996
  RI-781BPI'Raising Children - or Keeping Them Small?' of 14 Jan 97

  RI-629i  'Definition of "Care"' of 12 July 1996
  RI-785i  'On Not Remedying Disagreements - "Not Talking"' of 24 Jan 97


  (about understanding and handling enemies and criminals)

  RI-487i  'Dialogue: On Enemies and Hostility' of 20 Feb 1996
  RI-535i  '"An Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend" = INSANE' 10 Apr 96
  RI-646i  'FACING those who are mean or dishonest' of 31 July 96
  RI-058Ri 'Fair Game Series - Treatment of Enemies' of 1 Jan 95


  (about RI-Bulletins)

  RI-380Ri 'Obtaining Truth from the RI-Bulletins' of 1 Nov 1995
  RI-50RQi 'RI-xxxi series Archive - Content and Use' 28 Dec 94
               Revised and Replaced on 6 March 1996

These and other RI-Bulletins can well be obtained here - or

    at the Library of Koos' writings on
         http://Art-Org.com

    or (also accessible with WWW-browser) at
         ftp://thetics.europa.com/outgoing/adams/RI