Creative Education 2013. Vol.4, No.8, 492-496 Published Online August 2013 in SciRes (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ce) DOI:10.4236/ce.2013.48071 Stephen Biko’s Philosophy and Its Pedagogical Implications in South Africa Vuyisile Msila Department of Education Leadership and Management, College of Education, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa Email: msilavt@unisa.ac.za Received May 30 th , 2013; revised June 30 th , 2013; accepted July 7 th , 2013 Copyright © 2013 Vuyisile Msila. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attri- bution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. There are many approaches that need to inform education systems around the world. It also matters to know whether policymakers have followed (for example), a socialist or an individualist approach in for- mulating an education system. Furthermore, teachers and other role-players need to understand the para- digm that undergirds their system of education. This article focuses on the ideas of Stephen Biko, a South African political activist whose ideas proliferated in the 1970s. The article shows that certain values are crucial in building education founded on sound social justice policies. Most importantly, it displays that education is never a neutral act and that it will always be influenced by political debates and philosophies in a country. Keywords: Fundamental Pedagogics; Liberatory Education; Political Ideals; Social Justice; Values Introduction Bantu Stephen Biko became known around the world after his death at the hands of the apartheid police in 1977. He was the Black Consciousness (BC) leader who stood for human rights of the oppressed Black people in South Africa. The BC that Biko stood for was defined as “an inward-looking process to infuse people with pride and dignity” (Wilson, 2012: p. 14). There are critics who argue that among others, Biko was in- spired by the Black Power movement in America as well as philosophers such as Frantz Fanon and Paulo Freire. Carmi- chael and Hamilton (1967) defined the role of the Black Power movement as a means of encouraging a new consciousness among Black people which would make it possible for them to proceed in the struggle for human rights. Wilson (2012: p. 14) also postulates as she writes about Biko: Young as he was, he realized that a new psychological climate had to be created if the liberation of his country was to come about. He expressed what he saw as bitter the truth. Of prime importance was “to awaken the people as to who they are by getting them to state their identity. He thought that if you could do that, then there was no stop- ping them from revolution,” explained his colleague Ma- lusi Mpumlwana. Biko’s philosophy emphasized a number of aspects as high- lighted above. Among these were African humanism, affirma- tion of Black identity; the psychological emancipation. His philosophy underscored the idea of Black people living in apartheid South Africa to be able to free themselves from phy- sical and mental bondage. This article explores the implications of Biko’s philosophy in education. Although Stephen Biko died in 1977 after being tortured by apartheid police, his ideas lived long after him. Arguably, some critics still maintain that they are still relevant in today’s post-apartheid South Africa. Using the findings I gathered from an earlier study (Msila, 2012) on his biographical movie, Cry Freedom, in this article I specifi- cally look at the pedagogical implications of his philosophy. I do this by firstly exploring the ideas of Fanon and the Black Power movement; exploring how these might have inspired Biko. Then the article focuses on three aspects and how they can be informed by Biko’s philosophy. These three are African humanism; identity and culture as well as education and lan- guages. Objectives of the Study This article, as it explores the pedagogical implications of Biko’s philosophy also seeks to:  explore existing research on Biko’s philosophy and its im- plications on education;  examine how this philosophy is linked to other similar phi- losophies; and  investigate the extent in which politics can affect or impact on education. Theory: Fanon and Black Power Gibson (2011, p. 1) points out that, “Perhaps the most impor- tant recreation of Fanon’s philosophy of liberation on the Afri- can continent was by Steve Biko, whose emphasis on the lib- eration of the ‘mind’ of the oppressed became essential to the new stage of revolt against apartheid in the 1970s”. Fanon talked about the importance of freeing the mind of the colo- nized. He stressed the importance of the African mind to shed itself of colonial domination. Fanon was a revolutionary writer Copyright © 2013 SciRes. 492