Uncivil (nonviolent) protest, communal participation, and non-participation, in Steve Biko’s ethics of just struggle

Book section : Chapter

This chapter introduces a coherent ethical view of Steve Biko’s ideas about struggle and resistance by elaborating and examining the three key terms that emerge from Biko’s written and oral arguments. Alongside his written thought, I examine Biko’s testimony at the 1976 SASO/BPC apartheid court case where his Black Consciousness thought was placed on trial. I argue that what emerges is an understanding of specifically just struggle framed by two distinct ethical principles and modes of action—uncivil (nonviolent) protest and communal participation. Further, the programmatic distinction Biko maintains between nonviolent and violent protest highlights a third, important, ethical term— non-participation. I argue that these terms are not only crucial to deeper understanding of Biko’s own thought and of its ethical commitments to hope and historical progress but, also, to thinking beyond the dominant framework of much contemporary debate on civil and uncivil disobedience.

Authors: Ṣóyẹmí, ẸÀ

• Publication status: In press
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Host title: The Ethics of Uncivil Protest and Resistance
• Edition: 1
• ISBN: 9780197754993
• Language: English
• Subtype: Chapter