BIKO, a biography

348 pp., illus., paperback, Cape Town, 2012

"Xolela Mangu has brought Biko back to our lives. A must-read." Ngugi wa Thiong'o

"Mangu explores the complexities of his leadership and offers a far richer treatment of Biko than we have had thus far." Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonso Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University

"Mangu's grasp of black consciousness is too limited to allow him the scope to deal with Biko in a satisfactory manner. Consequently he arbitrarily locates Biko's philosophy and political inspiration in the Eastern Cape's great Xhosa warriors of the 19th century and ends up reducing him to a Xhosa boy from the Ginsberg township." Andile Mngitama, in the Mail & Guardian

"A brilliant biography...a landmark in Biko studies." Jeff Peires

This book is short-listed for the 2013 Alan Paton Non-Fiction Award.

Xolela Mangcu is Founding Director of the Steve Biko Foundation and Assistant Editor and columnist for The Sunday Independent. He is also Executive Chairman of the Platform for Public Deliberation, University of the Witwatersrand, and Excutive Director of the Human Sciences Research Council.