The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed
He was ‘banned’ by the apartheid government. In early 1973, the government tried to silence Biko by prohibiting him from speaking in public or from talking to more than one person at a time. He was not allowed to leave the Eastern Cape province and he was forbidden from writing publically or speaking to journalists. However, Biko resisted by forming local grassroots groups and organising rallies and a speech he made as a defence witness in May 1967, the first time he had spoken in public since being banned, has been described as a “seminar on Black Consciousness”. His testimony gave impetus to the Soweto Uprising – a student demonstration which police reacted to with fierce brutality, killing hundreds of young people.