"You are either alive and proud or you are dead, and when you are dead, you can't care anyway"

Steven Biko’s assertion offers a stark dichotomy between embracing life with pride and the futile absence of concern that follows death. At its heart, the statement is a call to vigorous, unapologetic participation in life, particularly in the context of personal dignity and individual or collective struggle. Biko, an anti-apartheid activist, deeply understood the value of self-worth and agency, especially for marginalized peoples denied basic rights and recognition. To be “alive and proud” is to exist intentionally, with an unyielding sense of identity, purpose, and resistance against oppression. Pride, in this sense, transcends mere ego, it embodies self-respect, determination, and the refusal to acquiesce to forces that seek to diminish one's humanity.

If one chooses the alternative, accepting subjugation or neglecting the fight for dignity, the result is a figurative, if not literal, death. At that point, urgency and purpose dissolve. Death, whether as physical cessation or as the surrender of one’s integrity, eliminates the ability to feel, care, strive, or hope. In such a state, matters of pride, justice, and freedom no longer have relevance. Biko’s insight stresses that only the living, those engaged and invested in their own existence, can aspire to make a difference or experience the fulfillment of self-assertion.

By invoking the inevitability of death and the consequent cessation of all concern, Biko presses for immediate action. There is no virtue in passivity or in waiting for a better time to demand respect. A life devoid of pride, lived under submission or fear, is an incomplete existence. Once life is lost, whether literally or metaphorically, opportunities for transformation and assertion vanish. He encourages all individuals, especially the oppressed, to seize the present, to live with courage and affirmation, to ensure that existence is not mere survival but a proud statement of one’s humanity.