Steve Biko was 25 years old when it happened: the 1972 mass walkout of black students protesting against inferior education at black universities throughout the country – Fort Hare in the Eastern Cape, Turfloop in Pietersburg, University of Natal (Black Section) and Ngoye University in Natal, and the University of the Western Cape in Bellville,.

I do not believe that there is anything superstitious about the number 25 and all I can say is that a coincidence seemed to have connected the coup of 25 April 1974 in Portugal and us in the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) on 25 September 1974.

The young soldiers in the Portuguese army were weary of the war in the colonies in Africa and were preaching the message of peace. They stuck white carnations into the barrels of their guns as a sign of protest and all of Portugal followed suit, culminating in the coup d’état of 25 April 1974 in which Antonio de Spinola toppled the rightwing government of Marcello Caetano. Could it be that the wave of ‘flower children’, with their messages of peace, had made an impact? Portugal even entered a ‘peace song’ in the Eurovision Song Contest at about that time. Many of the BCM activists were either banned or arrested at about the age of 25. I was detained on 25 October 1974 after being on the run for a month following the Viva Frelimo Rallies organised by the BCM on 25 September to celebrate the victory and independence of the people of Mozambique. When we finally went on trial in 1975 a number of us were 25 years old.

For a very long time the powers-that-be had been planning to act against us as we had proved to be the proverbial thorn in their oppressive flesh with our writings and pronouncements. A regular feature of the 1970s was the rounding up of activists by the Special Branch of the South African Police. They even used the infamous and much hated pass laws at the time as a pretext to detain people because, in most instances, we would challenge them to produce warrants before they could either search or raid a place. They would then send the uniformed police, who were empowered to arrest any black person for failing to produce a dompas.