Book presentation

Stephen Bantu Biko
A testament of hope

Naples
Via Cardinale Guglielmo Sanfelice, 8
Polo Umanistico Conference Hall
CNR-ISMed

8 July 2024 03.00 p.m.

Remote access on Teams platform

Poster

The inquest to clarify the circumstances surrounding the death of Prisoner No. 46 in the Port Elizabeth Security Police lock-up in Pretoria on 30 November 1977 had turned into a trial, a «conspiracy to uphold the end of justice». The final verdict identified neither culprits nor suspects because the death «could not be attributed to any action or omission attributable to a crime». The victim’s name was Stephen Bantu Biko. Born in King William’s Town, South Africa, and raised during the years of the Great Apartheid, Biko came from a Xhosa family of humble origins. Founder of the Black Consciousness movement, gifted with a powerful eloquence and a «superb articulation of ideas», his pen, «more powerful than a gun», had challenged “the system”. I Write What I Like collects his writings, his public speeches and his depositions in court and is considered, together with his life, a “testament of hope” by all those who today hope for the birth of «a universal and mestizo polis».

PROGRAM

Welcome greetings

Gabriella Corona
Director of the Institute for Mediterranean Studies
of the National Research Council
(CNR-ISMed)

Presentation of the volume

Donato Di Sanzo
CNR-ISMed

Pasquale Persico
Economist

Alessandro Bresolin
Writer

Sara Carbone
Author of the book
Teacher of Historical and Literary Disciplines
translator and language mediator

Introduces and moderates

Valerio Caruso
CNR-ISMed

SCIENTIFIC ORGANISATION
Salvatore Capasso (CNR-DSU)
Giovanni Canitano (CNR-ISMed)

INFO AND CONTACTS
Institute for Mediterranean Studies
of the National Research Council (CNR-ISMed)
Tel.: +39-081-6134086 (int. 214)
segreteria@ismed.cnr.it
www.ismed.cnr.it