Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Steve Biko

Steve Biko

 * This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page. 

The result was: scheduled for Today's featured article/September 12, 2017 by Jimfbleak - talk to me?  09:49, 24 August 2017 (UTC)



Bantu Stephen Biko (18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977) was a South African Xhosa anti-apartheid activist. Strongly opposed to racial segregation and white-minority rule in South Africa, Biko was at the forefront of the grassroots Black Consciousness Movement during the late 1960s and 1970s. Frustrated by the domination of white liberals in the anti-apartheid movement, he became a leading figure in the creation of the South African Students' Organisation in 1968. An African nationalist and African socialist, he was influenced by Frantz Fanon and the African-American Black Power movement. Biko popularized the slogan "black is beautiful", believing that black people needed to rid themselves of any sense of racial inferiority. In 1972, he helped found the Black People's Convention to promote these ideas among the wider population. Though the government banned Biko in 1973, he remained politically active. He was arrested in August 1977, and was severely beaten by State security officers, resulting in his death. Over 20,000 people attended his funeral. Although a controversial figure, Biko became one of the earliest icons of the movement against apartheid, and is regarded as a political martyr and the "Father of Black Consciousness".
 * Most recent similar article(s): There has not been a South African political biography at TFA in recent memory (if ever, actually).
 * Main editors: ;
 * Promoted: 20 August 2017
 * Reasons for nomination: 12 September 2017 marks the fortieth anniversary since Steve Biko's death - it is therefore a very fitting date on which to have the article about him as TFA. This is also a level-4 Vital Article.
 * Support as nominator. Midnightblueowl (talk) 11:37, 21 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Support as FA co-nom. Figure of huge significance in South African history, and in the philosophy of Black Consciousness. FTR I've trimmed the proposed blurb. Vanamonde (talk) 12:30, 21 August 2017 (UTC)
 * 'Support, I don't normally support anniversaries of death, but this different. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 12:31, 21 August 2017 (UTC)