Both of the people I consider my ‘hero’s ‘ embody whom I aspire to become, not in a sense of wanting to be like them , but to come into knowing myself, my history and bring about a change.
‘ The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed’ from a book ‘ I write what I like’ by Steve Biko published officially in 1987.
Biko Steven Bantu was born in 1946 and was leader of a Black Conscious movement which aimed to raise an attack on what the ‘African’ community felt was in favour of traditional white values. As a law student he was also an activist against the ‘then’ apartheid system. The main aim of this movement was to liberate the average ‘non white’ South African.
The primary aim is not to be political but to merely appreciate those who have played a role in the upliftment of mankind. There are those who still do, like the next person I regard a hero of our time.
Felipe Andres Coronel, he known as Immortal Technique, to the masses who love hip hop. Born in 1978 in Lima Province in Peru, moved to Harlem with his parents at the age of two and started raping at nine. During his university study years he was arrested and imprisoned for a year, where he began to study the history of the black and Latino revolutionaries such Malcolm X and started writing songs that talked about this. He’s main aim is to bring the ‘truth’ and the revolution of the mind to the people in the form of hip hop.
Through writing and music, I believe one can make a difference without having to partake in protistic violence. As they say the ‘pen is mightier than the sword’. I have used both my heroes’ aspects of expressing themselves in my writing ability. They have made me realise that there are things that need to be said even without authoritarian approval.
I want to be remembered for the difference I made and making within the literacy landscape, in terms of freeing people’s minds and liberating their opinions.
by Pumla Luthuli
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