Stephen Biko was an African who fought against apartheid in South Africa. Apartheid is policies that the government had made to segregate the races. Biko was arrested and severely beaten by the police in "police room 619" ( a line from the song), then driven 700 miles, naked and shackled, to lie on the filthy floor of a police hospital, where he died. 20,000 people attended his funeral. His death helped highlight the brutality of South African security laws to the international community and the general plight of South Africans.

By the very fact that you are going to look him up. This song has done its job Gabriel is an absolute treasure.

Definitely look him up. Very powerful.

This song changed my life. Becoming aware of Stephen Biko's work and death... joining Amnesty International... educating myself on the horrors of Apartheid in South Africa... Speaking out on those issues. Music can literally change lives. This song never fails to move me. An anthem for the ages.

"I got to look him up" Same thing I said back in 1980. (except I had to use microfilm). Good to see the song is till working.

Just thinking about this song makes me weep. Thank you Peter, RIP Steve Biko.

Nice to see an effort being made to put Biko back into the public eye. In the 70s & early 80s his name & Mandela's were on an equal footing. But Biko has been largely forgotten as time has gone on. I guess because Mandela got to live, leave jail, become president & be remembered as a kindly old man. Whereas Biko's early death has left him frozen in time as the " dangerous radical " The world today isn't comfortable with dangerous radicals. Well, I suggest it gets comfortable. The plain fact is that nothing in history ever gets changed without them. Every freedom, every right, every privilege & every opportunity anyone anywhere in the world enjoys exists because someone, somewhere, sometime stood in front of a baton charge, sat down & refused to move, chained themselves to a railing or challenged power to it's face in some way. Unless of course you're one of those people who seems to believe that the rich & powerful give up something to the masses out of the goodness of their hearts because they care. In which case I'm going to assume that you also believe in fairies & pixies

There is an excellent movie about Steve Biko called Cry Freedom. This song is one of my favourites of Peter Gabriel. This is a great version of this song.

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