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Ar The Best President South Africa Never Had
What if Steve Biko had lived and reshaped South Africa with the force of his mind and spirit? This article explores the enduring power of Biko’s vision and imagines the kind of leader he would have been—a revolutionary president of consciousness, not just politics.
What if Steve Biko had lived? What if his life hadn’t been snatched by the cruelty of apartheid, by the hands of a government determined to silence the voice of freedom, of humanity? These questions rattle against the ribs of South Africa’s history, questions we dare ask but will never know the answers to.
In a small cemetery, near the entrance to Ginsberg township in King William's Town, lies the marble headstone of a man who stood taller than the country that sought to break him. He stood for dignity, for consciousness, for a future where black South Africans could lift their heads and claim their space in a world that had systematically erased their worth.
Biko wasn’t a myth or a paragon of virtue. He was flesh and blood – he drank, sometimes too much, and he questioned the institutions around him, even those claiming divine authority like the Church. He wasn’t a messiah; he was a man. But it’s precisely his humanity that made him a force. A tall, solid man who drew people in not with his rhetoric alone, but with his presence. His laugh, loud and full, carried with it the promise that the struggle wasn’t just suffering—it was a reclaiming, a rebirth. It was life itself.
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Your mind's limitless power
Biko’s body was broken by apartheid’s enforcers, but his mind was unyielding. His understanding of colonial thinking, racism, and white supremacy was as sharp as it was lived. He wasn’t merely a student of oppression; he felt its bite every day. His critique wasn’t intellectual distance—it was urgent, necessary, like a doctor diagnosing a fatal disease in a patient too exhausted to fight.
"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed,” he said, and he didn’t mean it in passing. Biko knew that liberation was not just a matter of laws and votes; it was about reclaiming the very soul, the very essence of what it meant to be black in a world that saw blackness as lesser.
On the eve of his death, on September 11th 1977, the evil apartheid police bundled Biko’s naked injured body into the back of a van. They proceeded to drive him for 1,100 kilometers from Port Elizabeth to Pretoria, injuring him further. His body battered and his head deeply hurt, he died the following day in a Pretoria hospital. This wasn’t just the end of a life; it was an act of war against a movement.
Biko's Great Power
The apartheid government saw Biko not as a man but as a symbol that needed to be snuffed out before it ignited an inferno. But what they didn’t realize is that the substance beneath the symbol was even more powerful. Biko’s brilliant mind, coupled with his fiery spirit, shone brighter than noontime sunshine. Biko couldn’t be diminished or defeated. Not even in death.
The more the apartheid government tried to erase him, the more they fed the flame of the black consciousness movement that he led.
So, what if Biko had lived? What if he had survived that van, those beatings, that hospital? What if he had risen to lead, to stand at the helm of a new South Africa, not just in theory but in practice? The answer to that isn’t simple. Biko wasn’t a politician in the way we’ve come to understand them. He wasn’t about promises and manifestos. He was about consciousness. He didn’t seek to lead people like cattle, but to wake them up, to show them that they held the power all along. He believed in something deeper than electoral politics; he believed in a psychological revolution.
Black Consciousness Forever President
Had Biko lived, it’s likely South Africa would have seen a leader unlike any it’s ever known. His presidency wouldn’t have been about policies alone; it would’ve been about a shift in the very understanding of what it means to lead. Biko wouldn’t have governed from the top down; he would’ve flipped the structure. He would’ve demanded that black South Africans no longer look to leaders to solve their problems but look within. He would’ve encouraged the oppressed to reclaim their minds, their dignity, their power. And this is why he was so dangerous.
While we will never know what kind of president Biko would have been, we do know that he wouldn’t have been interested in becoming just another cog in a broken machine. He wouldn’t have sought the power of the office for its own sake. He would have torn down the notion that freedom could be granted by a government, because Biko understood that true liberation starts within. If the apartheid government feared him alive, perhaps they feared him even more dead. Because in death, Biko became a legend, a martyr whose very existence still whispers to us today: Wake up. Reclaim your mind. Reclaim your blackness oh black queen; black king. Reclaim your humanity.
Biko may very well be the best president South Africa never had because he would have unlocked this limitless power within.
His life was a reminder that the fight for freedom is fought not just in the streets but in the mind. And though he never had the chance to wear the title of president of South Africa, he will always be President of the black consciousness that transcends borders, oceans, classes and ideologies.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
I seek to awaken and empower Africa through knowledge. If you would like to invest in my work, you can do so through:
Paypal: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Mobile money transfer number through Worldremit or MPESA: +254795591751
Click here to see exactly what your money will do:
https://environmentalafrica.com/donate
