I Write What I Like: Selected Writings

I Write What I Like (full title: I Write What I Like: Selected Writings by Steve Biko) is a landmark collection of writings by Steve Biko, one of South Africa's most influential anti-apartheid thinkers and the founding figure of the Black Consciousness Movement.

The collection brings together Biko's writings from 1969, the year he assumed the presidency of the South African Students Organisation (SASO), through to 1972, when banning orders imposed by the apartheid government silenced him from publishing. The title is drawn from the pseudonymous column Biko contributed to the SASO Newsletter under the name Frank Talk - a name that captured both his defiance and his directness.

At its core, I Write What I Like articulates Biko's central conviction: that black South Africans could not achieve genuine liberation without first reclaiming their psychological freedom and cultural identity. This philosophy of self-reliance and collective dignity formed the ideological foundation of the Black Consciousness Movement.

First published in 1978 - the year following Biko's death in police detention - the book was subsequently republished in 1987 and again in April 2002. The collection was edited by Father Aelred Stubbs, Biko's longtime pastor and close friend, who also contributed a personal memoir of Biko to the volume. The book further includes a preface by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, an introduction by Malusi and Thoko Mpumlwana - both of whom worked alongside Biko in the Black Consciousness Movement - and a foreword by Professor Lewis Gordon.

Contributors

• Preface: Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu
• Introduction: Malusi and Thoko Mpumlwana
• Foreword: Lewis R. Gordon
• Personal Memoir ("Martyr of Hope"): Revd Fr A. Stubbs C.R.