2007年VOA标准英语-South Africa Marks 30th Anniversary of Anti-Apa

By Scott Bobb
Johannesburg
11 September 2007

South Africans are marking the 30th anniversary of the death of Steve Biko, the founder¹ of the Black Consciousness Movement, who died while in police custody². The occasion is being marked this week by speeches, memorial services and conferences on the anti-apartheid leader. VOA's Scott Bobb reports from our Southern Africa bureau in Johannesburg.

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Picture taken 03 October 1977 in King William's Town of several anti-apartheid militants attending burial ceremony of Steve Biko

Thirty years ago Wednesday, Steve Biko, one of the most charismatic leaders of South Africa's black liberation movement, died of head injuries in a police cell in Pretoria.

He had been taken - naked and unconscious - to Pretoria in the back of a truck from the southern city of Port Elizabeth, a 12-hour ride. The 30-year-old activist⁴ had been detained and tortured after ignoring an order meant to prevent him from engaging in public activity.

His death sparked a wave of international outrage⁵ at the heavy repression⁶ of dissent⁷ in South Africa at the time.

Obene Amponsah of the Steve Biko Foundation says Biko influenced black people everywhere by giving voice to their hopes and frustrations⁸ and turning these into action and deeds.

"He was the main force behind the development of the Black Consciousness Movement in terms of articulating the worth of black people, not necessarily as the anti-thesis of being white but being of value in and of itself, and the contribution that black people had and would continue to make to the world," she explained.

She says Biko took his ideology⁹ beyond words and turned it into scholarship programs, childcare centers and social projects many of which exist today.

She adds that his thoughts were welcomed internationally and as a result there are Steve Biko centers in Brazil and the United Kingdom, and he is remembered among advocates of black power in the United States.

Although Biko's ideas began primarily as a movement, it led to the creation of political parties and other organizations.

Biko was born in 1946 into a modest family in King William's Town, near Port Elizabeth. He attended local schools and enrolled¹⁰ as a medical student at the University of Natal¹¹.

He soon became active in student politics. He helped found the South Africa Student's Organization, which advocated a more activist role in the struggle against apartheid, and wrote a column called Frank Talk.

In the 1970s he helped found the Black People's Convention and labor¹² and community organizations.

His activities led to a banning order which confined him to his home town and forbade him from speaking in public, attending large meetings or being quoted. Nevertheless he continued his work until his arrest in Capetown in August 1977 and death the following month.

Amponsah of the Steve Biko Foundation says Biko's ideas went beyond politics.

"One of the things that we are [observing] this year, the 30th anniversary of Biko's death, is really the contemporary relevance¹³ of Biko, his legacy¹⁴ and notions of black consciousness," she said.

The Foundation is sponsoring a conference this week in Capetown to examine areas of importance to blacks globally, such as culture, economic opportunity and equality, African identity, political freedoms and spirituality.

The conference is being attended by South African President Thabo Mbeki and numerous political, religious and civic¹⁵ leaders.

1 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

2 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

3 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

4 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

5 outrage   

n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒

参考例句：

• When he heard the news he reacted with a sense of outrage.他得悉此事时义愤填膺。
• We should never forget the outrage committed by the Japanese invaders.我们永远都不应该忘记日本侵略者犯下的暴行。

6 repression   

n.镇压，抑制，抑压

参考例句：

• The repression of your true feelings is harmful to your health.压抑你的真实感情有害健康。
• This touched off a new storm against violent repression.这引起了反对暴力镇压的新风暴。

7 dissent   

n./v.不同意，持异议

参考例句：

• It is too late now to make any dissent.现在提出异议太晚了。
• He felt her shoulders gave a wriggle of dissent.他感到她的肩膀因为不同意而动了一下。

8 frustrations   

挫折( frustration的名词复数 )； 失败； 挫败； 失意

参考例句：

• The temptation would grow to take out our frustrations on Saigon. 由于我们遭到挫折而要同西贡算帐的引诱力会增加。
• Aspirations will be raised, but so will frustrations. 人们会产生种种憧憬，但是种种挫折也会随之而来。

9 ideology   

n.意识形态，(政治或社会的)思想意识

参考例句：

• The ideology has great influence in the world.这种思想体系在世界上有很大的影响。
• The ideal is to strike a medium between ideology and inspiration.我的理想是在意识思想和灵感鼓动之间找到一个折衷。

10 enrolled   

adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起

参考例句：

• They have been studying hard from the moment they enrolled. 从入学时起，他们就一直努力学习。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He enrolled with an employment agency for a teaching position. 他在职业介绍所登了记以谋求一个教师的职位。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 natal   

adj.出生的，先天的

参考例句：

• Many music-lovers make pilgrimages to Mozart's natal place.很多爱好音乐的人去访问莫扎特的出生地。
• Since natal day,characters possess the visual elements such as dots and strokes.文字从诞生开始便具有了点画这样的视觉元素。

12 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

13 relevance   

n.中肯，适当，关联，相关性

参考例句：

• Politicians' private lives have no relevance to their public roles.政治家的私生活与他们的公众角色不相关。
• Her ideas have lost all relevance to the modern world.她的想法与现代社会完全脱节。

14 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

15 civic   

adj.城市的，都市的，市民的，公民的

参考例句：

• I feel it is my civic duty to vote.我认为投票选举是我作为公民的义务。
• The civic leaders helped to forward the project.市政府领导者协助促进工程的进展。