Ndibhala Intando Yam

isiXhosa edition translated by PROF PETER MTUZE, with input from PROF SIMPHIWE SESANTI and DR ATHAMBILE MASOLA

After years in the making, the iconic I Write What I Like has been translated into isiXhosa, a long-awaited project for the Biko family and the Biko Foundation. Ndibhala Intando Yam features the writing of the famous activist and Black Consciousness leader, Steve Biko. Before his untimely death in detention at age 30, Biko was instrumental in uniting Black Africans in the struggle against the apartheid government in South Africa.

This edition features a new Foreword by Nkosinathi Biko as well as the material of the original 2004 Picador Africa edition: a collection of Biko’s columns entitled I Write What I Like published in the journal of the South Africa Student Organisation under the pseudonym of ‘Frank Talk’; other journal articles, interviews and letters written by Steve Biko at the time; a Preface by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and an Introduction by Nkosinathi Biko; and a moving memoir by Father Aelred Stubbs, which pays tribute to the courage and power of this young leader who was to become one of Africa’s heroes.

BANTU STEVE BIKO was born in Tylden, Eastern Cape, South Africa in 1946. As a medical student, he founded a black student organisation in 1969 and created a national 'Black Consciousness' Movement. The movement's aim was to combat racism and the South African apartheid government. He was banned in 1973, which prohibited him from speaking in public, writing for publication and any travel. Biko was arrested by police in August 1977 and died in detention, naked and manacled, from extensive brain damage, twenty-five days later. He left a widow and two young children. His death caused international protests and a UN arms embargo. Biko became a symbol of the anti-apartheid movement. An inquest in late 1977 found no one responsible for his death, but in 1997 five former policemen admitted being involved.