September is a month of memory. It is Heritage Month, when we celebrate the cultures and institutions that bind us together. It is also the month we recall the brutal execution of Bantu Steve Biko by the callous apartheid regime on 12 September 1977.
Biko was more than a thinker — he was a builder. In 1969, together with fellow student leaders, he co-founded the South African Students' Organisation (SASO), serving as its first president. This organisation gave Black students their own platform to organise and to claim their dignity.
It was in this context that the slogan, "Black man, you are on your own", emerged — a rallying cry inseparably linked with Biko's leadership and fundamental philosophy. The phrase was not despairing. It was a declaration of agency, an insistence that liberation would not be handed down but had to be claimed by those denied it.
Heritage Under Pressure
Nearly fifty years later, South Africa still faces forces that challenge the gains of democracy. Some cloak themselves in the language of rights, yet their actions reveal a defence of old privilege. They claim allegiance to the Constitution and rule of law, yet try to use exactly these institutions established to transform the country in order to avert and block that very transformation. Let's be honest: we've seen this before, only the language has changed. They have appropriated the language of change in order to block the change required.
We have seen court challenges by Afriforum and Solidariteit against laws designed to broaden opportunity — from Black Economic Empowerment to national health reform. We have seen their recent treacherous lobbying in Washington, seeking foreign validation for positions rejected by our democratic consensus and using those positions of privilege and opportunities provided by the democratic dispensation they fought hard to oppose in order to pursue a narrow-minded and exclusive agenda.
And on the fringes, groups like the Suidlanders continue to stoke fear with separatist narratives that belong to the past, not to a democratic present.
The question for Heritage Month is stark: are we defending the inheritance of democracy, or allowing the heritage of separatism to resurface in new clothes?
Biko's Rallying Cry in 2025
"Black man, you are on your own" remains a challenge to each generation.
In Biko's time, it meant rejecting dependency and asserting the right to lead. It was about rejecting the politics and organisation of exclusion, and instead stimulating and deepening national confidence, national pride and national assertiveness of the majority. It is by liberating ourselves from definition by those who seek to attach to us foreign labels and conceptions that we can both affirm our humanity and contribute something new to humanity.
In our time, it warns us not to rely on foreign actors to protect our sovereignty, nor to accept institutions that delay the future of the youth through inefficiency or poor prioritisation. That is the hard truth.
The youth, especially, must heed this call. For you cannot outsource your future. You cannot defer accountability. You must demand that leaders prioritise what matters — education, jobs, functioning services — and you must carry the responsibility of building on these priorities with courage.
A Pan-African Call
Biko spoke of dignity in African terms. Today, as the African Union advances Agenda 2063 — free movement, youth entrepreneurship, continental integration — the same principle applies: Africa must stand sovereign, on its own terms. South Africa's youth are part of this continental inheritance.
In Closing
Heritage Month is not only about celebration; it is about responsibility. To honour Biko is not to repeat his words once a year, but to live them in practice.
The slogan born under his leadership still echoes: "Black man, you are on your own." But its meaning was never isolation. It was empowerment. It was dignity. It was a demand for courage and leadership.
For the youth of 2025, that call remains your inheritance — and your duty. The future will not be secured by nostalgia. It will not be defended by fear. It will not be validated in foreign capitals. It will be built by your courage, your discipline, and your service.
“The future is not an accident.”
Dr Malusi Gigaba is a Scholar-Statesman, an ANC NEC Member, a former Cabinet Minister of the Republic of South Africa, and a Member of Parliament.