Veterans recall Biko's Black Consciousness influence

One of the pioneers of Botswana politics, Motsamai Mpho, who co-founded the Botswana Peoples' Party (BPP), says the black consciousness movement had a big impact on local politics. 

Mpho says he was influenced by Biko's politics, especially after relocating to South Africa in the late 1940s. It was while there, that he and other Batswana got involved in radical politics aimed at ending white minority rule. He says when he was banished from South Africa by the Boers, black consciousness then started to find its way into Botswana politics for the first time. "Our local environment at the time was unique. As far as political activism goes, Bechuanaland was dry in those days. You could not see it because Batswana were free people, unlike their South African counterparts," Mpho said in a telephone interview from Maun.