Steve Biko, the forgotten martyr, 12 September 1977

Thirty years ago today Steve Biko, the South African trade unionist, was murdered in police custody.

If the townships revolt undermined the myth of white omnipotence, Biko's death destroyed any claim the regime had to morality. Not only was he beaten unconscious while being detained without trial in Port Elizabeth, he was then carried nearly 1,000 miles in a police van, naked and in a coma, to Pretoria, where he died of a brain haemorrhage on 12 September, 1977.