ON DEATH
Steve Biko, I Write What I Like, San Francisco; Harper & Row, 1986, pp. 152-3
These words extracted from an interview with an American businessman given
some months before Steve's final detention and death, but not printed in
The New Republic until 7 January 1978, need no further comment.
You are either alive and proud or you are dead, and when you are dead, you
can't care anyway. And your method of death can itself be a politicizing thing.
So you die in the riots. For a hell of a lot of them, in fact, there's really
nothing to lose - almost literally, given the kind of situations that they come
from. So if you can overcome the personal fear of death, which is a highly irrational
thing, you know, then you're on the way.
And in interrogation the same sort of thing applies. I was talking to this
policeman, and I told him, “If you want us to make any progress, the best thing
is for us to talk. Don’t try any form of rough stuff, because it just won’t
work.” And this is absolutely true also. For I just couldn’t see what they could
do to me which would make me all of a sudden soften to them. If they talk to
me, well I’m bound to be affected by them as human beings. But the moment they
adopt rough stuff, they are imprinting in my mind that they are police. And
I only understand one form of dealing with police, and that’s to be as unhelpful
as possible. So I button up. And I told them this: “It’s up to you.” We had
a boxing match the first day I was arrested. Some guy tried to clout me with
a club. I went into him 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. And of course he said exactly what you were saying just now:
“I will kill you.” He meant to intimidate. And my answer was: “How long is it
going to take you?” Now of course they were observing my reaction. And they
could see that I was completely unbothered. If they beat me up, it’s to my advantage.
I can use it. They just killed somebody in jail – a friend of mind – about ten
days before I was arrested. Now it would have been bloody useful evidence for
them to assault me. At least it would indicate what kind of possibilities were
there, leading to this guy’s death. So, I wanted them to go ahead and do what
they could do, so that I could use it. I wasn’t really afraid that their violence
might lead me to make revelations I didn’t want to make, because I had nothing
to reveal on this particular issue. I was operating from a very good position,
and they were in a very weak position. My attitude is, I’m not going to allow
them to carry out their program faithfully. If they want to beat me five times,
they can only do so on condition that I allow them to beat me five times. 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.
So if they had meant to give me so much of a beating, and not more, my idea
is to make them go beyond what they wanted to give me and to give back as much
as I can give so that it becomes an uncontrollable thing. You see the one problem
this guy had with me: he couldn’t really fight with me because it meant he must
hit back, like a man. But he was given instructions, you see, on how to hit,
and now these instructions were no longer applying because it was a fight. So
he had to withdraw and get more instructions. So I said to them, “Listen,
if you guys want to do this your way, you have got to handcuff me and bind my
feet together, so that I can't respond. If you allow me to respond, I'm certainly
going to respond. And I'm afraid you may have to kill me in the process even
if it's not your intention.” |
