Biko

A review of the biographical novel, Biko by Donald Woods. The paper reviews the book as a biography of both Steve Biko and Donald Woods. It illustrates how Donald Woods was able to combine his own story with that of Steve Biko in the novel. It begins with a background on Steve Biko and Donald Woods, goes on to state the main struggle of the book and gives a synopsis of the plot. The focus of this paper is on the way the events affected Woods.Biko tells the story of Donald Woods and his relationship with black consciousness leader Steve Biko. The author Donald Woods is a journalist and was a close friend of Steve Bikos. Biko is a biography of Donald Woods as well as a biography of Steve Biko as Woods sees him. Firstly, I will briefly detail who Steve Biko is so the events of the book can be seen in perspective. Steve Biko was a black South African who led the black consciousness movement in South Africa. He struggled for liberation from the apartheid regime. He was a political activist and believed that black liberation started with black psychological self-reliance. This idea was the basis for the black consciousness movement that Biko led. Biko believed that by doing this you could get to the base of the problem and change the way society operated. Biko was killed by South African security forces while in detention, aged thirty.