Art and Activism: The Interrogators

Steve Biko and The Interrogators

• Steve Biko was a pivotal Black Consciousness leader whose death occurred in 1978, igniting artistic reflections on racial injustice.
• The Interrogators is a renowned triptych created by an artist in response to Biko’s death, featuring portraits of three white security officers involved in his interrogation.
• These officers were part of the nine security personnel who interrogated Biko while he was in custody, ultimately leading to his fatal outcome.
• The artist aimed to depict these individuals as "terribly ordinary-looking" to highlight the concept of the "banality of evil," emphasizing the commonplace nature of such atrocities.
• Original photographs that inspired the triptych were taken by Mike McCann, a photographer for the Rand Daily Mail, capturing the security officers as they left court after an inquest into Biko's death.
• Following the triptych, the artist produced a subsequent series of 20 drawings further exploring the themes surrounding Biko's death and legacy.