Led by President Nelson Mandela, South Africa yesterday honoured Steve Biko, the founder of the Black Consciousness Movement and a hero of the struggle against minority rule, on the 20th anniversary of his death.
The emerging nation commemorated the life and death of Biko - he died at the age of 30 in a prison cell after suffering brain injuries during an interrogation session - by unveiling a bronze statue to him in the Eastern Cape city of East London, renaming the bridge over the nearby Buffalo River after him, and declaring his humble birthplace in Ginsburg, King William's Town, a national monument.
The statue, sculpted by Naomi Jacobson, was unveiled by Mr Mandela, who paid homage to Biko in a long oration heard by high-ranking dignitaries, including Biko's widow Ntsiki, his son, Nkosinathi, the Eastern Cape Premier, Mr Makhenkeso Stofile, and the former US Black Panther leader, Mr Stokely Carmichael.
Mr Mandela described Biko as one of a long line of black resistance leaders from Eastern Cape, stretching back to the 19th century Xhosa chief Hintsa. The Eastern Cape was the site of the first interaction between white settlers and indigenous blacks and the subsequent frontier wars.
Biko emerged as a leader of exceptional ability in the late 1960s after the African National Congress and its off-shoot, the Pan-Africanist Congress, were all but destroyed in the crackdown against black resistance by the white government after the Sharpeville massacre of 1960 and the short-lived attempts by black leaders, including Mr Mandela, to launch underground guerrilla movements.
Yesterday's ceremonies came in the wake of the appearance before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of five former security policemen applying for amnesty for their role in Biko's death. The five men, led by Mr Harold Synman, a former police colonel, interrogated Biko on September 6th, 1977, less than a week before his death on September 12th.
Their initial testimony added little to the evidence which they gave at the inquest in November 1977: that Biko sustained head injuries when he banged his head against a wall during "a scuffle" with his interrogators.
Under relentless questioning from Mr George Bizos, the lawyer representing the Biko family, Mr Synman admitted that "the scuffle" was precipitated by Biko's refusal to stand in their presence and by their anger at his "insolence". Mr Synman acknowledged, too, that Biko was punched during the scuffle, attempting to justify the punches as necessary to restrain Biko, a physically robust man, who, according to the police, went berserk. The hearing has been adjourned until later in the year.