BIKO, ALICE “MAMCETHE” (after 1910–13 November 1995), mother of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko. Mamcethe was born in South Africa and had four children—Bukelwa, Khaya, Bantu Stephen (“Steve”), and Nobandile (when strung together these names mean “We admire the expanded family” in Xhosa)—with her husband, Matthew Mzingaye Biko, a policeman and government clerk. They lived in towns across the Eastern Cape before finally settling in the Ginsberg township of King William’s Town (now known as Qonce). Living conditions in this community were modest, with one toilet for every four families and a limited water supply. Mzingaye died suddenly in 1950, leaving a widowed Mamcethe to support her four children, the oldest of whom was only eight years old, as a domestic and chef.
When her third child, Steve, who had become a prominent activist and proponent of the Black Consciousness Movement, was banned from engaging in political activity and confined to King William’s Town in March 1973, he moved back into Mamcethe’s house for a time. Throughout the following years he was repeatedly detained without trial or charges, and in August 1977 he was arrested, tortured, and killed by the government’s security police.
Over twenty thousand people attended Steve’s funeral. The Biko family sued the government and in 1979 agreed to a modest monetary settlement, which would be divided among a community project in his honor, his widow and two young sons, and Mamcethe.