Steve Biko and Eldridge Cleaver

To better understand the African Diaspora through the eyes of a black man, one must first comprehend the struggles that the man had fought his way through to give freedom that his people deserved. The two men that will be delved into in this paper; Steve Biko and Eldrige Cleaver, men who hail from two opposites sides of the Meridian yet have so much in common one would think they fought side by side for freedom. Steve Biko was anti-Apartheid politician in South Africa who died in 1977 after being tortured and starved for twenty-four days in prison for allegedly planning to overthrow the government and his "black consciousness campaign." Eldridge Cleaver on the other hand helped organize the Black Panther Movement in America in 1966 and was also its Minister for Information. After he returned from exile in Algeria, he renounced the Black Panther organization and had even run for president of the United States under the Peace and Freedom Party ticket. He extreme "black power" views made him one of the most controversial African-Americans of the time. As we come to understand the different political views of these two great blacks, we will also come to see that they possess the same quality; freedom for their people and their desire to see better organization.

Throughout their entire lives Steve Biko, founder of the Black Consciousness Movement and Eldridge Cleaver, founder of the Black Panther Movement had become very politically active during their youth. Steve Biko had grown up to be an intelligent student and even went to medical school. There he joined the National