Who is Steve Biko? Google Doodle honours anti-apartheid campaigner on his 70th birthday
GOOGLE often change their logo to celebrate or commemorate special holidays, anniversaries or the birthday of a famous figure.
Today, would've been Steve Biko's 70th birthday and to mark the occasion, the search engine have replaced their usual sign with a doodle of the South African.
Who is Steve Biko?
Steve Biko was a student leader who founded the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM), an anti-Apartheid operation which mobilised much of South Africa's urban black population in the 1960s and 1970s.
As an activist he aimed to empower black people in South Africa through his writings and was known for his slogan "Black is beautiful".
As Biko became more influential in South Africa, the apartheid government started trying to silence him and in February 1973 he was banned from speaking to more than one person at once.
He was also unable to write or speak in public or with the media and was restricted to one area of South Africa, he was also forbidden to quote anything he'd said.
But in spite of this, Biko and the BCM still played a big role in organising protests which resulted in the Soweto Uprising of June 16 1976 and in 2004, he was voted 13th in the SABC3's Great South Africans.
How did he die?
On August 18 1977, when Biko was just 30-years-old, he was arrested at a police roadblock under the Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967.
He was questioned by Port Elizabeth security police and interrogated, tortured and beaten for 22 hours, to the point he fell into a coma.
While in police custody, Biko suffered a major head injury and was chained to a window grille for a day, eventually officers drove him to a station with hospital facilities on September 11.
But, by this point Biko was almost dead from his injuries and he passed away the next day.
Police officers said Biko died from an extended hunger strike but the autopsy revealed that he had multiple bruises, abrasions and suffered a brain haemorrhage.
Tributes
Biko has been honoured at a number of universities, including the University of Cape Town, University of Manchester, Ruskin College, Oxford and many others.
Also, there are two streets in London named after Steve Biko in Finsbury Park and Hounslow while in Pretoria, a hospital has been named after him.
Nelson Mandela said of Biko: "They had to kill him to prolong the life of apartheid" and many regard him as a martyr of the anti-Apartheid movement.
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