Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe

New Reflections

Benjamin Pogrund

• Publisher: Jonathan Ball
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781776190041
• eBook ISBN: 9781776190058
• Topic: Politica e relazioni internazionali
• Subtopic: Biografie in ambito politico

A collection of thought-provoking and moving essays on Robert Sobukwe, commissioned and edited by his biographer and friend Benjamin Pogrund. Sobukwe was a lecturer, lawyer, founding member and first president of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), and Robben Island prisoner.

Notes

Benjamin Pogrund

1.Information for this chapter is drawn chiefly from my book Sobukwe and Apartheid, published in 1990 by Peter Halban Publishers, London; Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey; and Jonathan Ball Publishers, Johannesburg. It is now in its third edition, issued by Jonathan Ball Publishers as Robert Sobukwe: How Can Man Die Better.

2.‘Inaugural Address’, in Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, Speeches of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, 1949–1959 (PAC, 2010).

3.Ibid.

4.I was allowed six visits to Sobukwe during his first year on the island. He and I had no illusions about the reason for this. We believed the microphone was in the ceiling above us. My conclusion was that the government wanted to decide what to do with him and needed to know his thinking. He repeatedly made it abundantly clear: the moment he was free he would resume work to destroy white supremacy. He knew he was dooming himself to imprisonment.

5.Kwanele Sosibo, Mail & Guardian, 24–30 August 2018.

6.Benzi Ka-Soko, City Press, 15 July 2018.

7.Thando Sipuye, Robert Sobukwe Foundation, Graaff-Reinet, date uncertain, 2018.

8.Conversation, Johannesburg, 5 July 2018.

9.I donated my collection of documents to the library.

10.Jaki Seroke, Sunday Independent, 25 February 2018.

11.Kenneth Mokgatlhe, The New Age, 27 February 2018.

12.Tebogo Brown, letters to the editor, The Star, 2 March 2018.

13.Azande Ralephenya, Sowetan, 22 March 2018.

14.Baldwin Ndaba, Therese Owen, Masego Panyane, Rabbie Serumula and Janet Smith (eds), The Black Consciousness Reader (Jacana, 2018).

15.Xolisa Phillip, ‘Forgotten heroes deliver a timely lesson on struggle’, Business Day, 11 April 2018.

16.Panashe Chigumadzi, Sunday Times, 21 June 2018.

17.Lindani Ngcobo, letters to the editor, Sunday Times, 1 July 2018.

18.Thando Sipuye, Sunday Independent, 29 April 2018.

19.The Star, 4 July 2018.

20.Conversation, Johannesburg, 20 June 2018.

N Barney Pityana

1.Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, Speeches of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, 1949–1959 (PAC, 2010). All quotations from Sobukwe in this chapter are taken from this source.

2.Benjamin Pogrund, Robert Sobukwe: How Can Man Die Better, third edition (Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2015).

3.President Thabo Mbeki invited Dr Mangosuthu Buthelezi of the IFP to join government as deputy president in 1999. This did not materialise because there was no agreement about the role of the deputy president. Buthelezi wanted it to perform the same significant role that Thabo Mbeki performed under Mandela’s presidency. Of course, during Mandela’s government of national unity (GNU), Buthelezi occupied a senior ministerial post as minister of home affairs. The GNU was dissolved in 1996. Mbeki also invited Mosibudi Mangena of Azapo to join the cabinet.

4.Mgwebi Snail, ‘The Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa: A Product of the Entire Black World’, Historia Actual Online, no 1...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• By the same author
• Dedication
• About this book
• The man whose sacrifice and suffering changed South Africa – Benjamin Pogrund
• A voice that could not be silenced – N Barney Pityana
• The truth of who I am will set me free – Claudelle von Eck
• Radical politics, yes, but with civility and humanity – Adam Habib and Alexandra Leisegang
• Rise like an eagle: Reinterpreting Sobukwe – Thandeka Gqubule-Mbeki and Duma Gqubule
• The road map that still helps to guide us – Barney Mthombothi
• Making our way through expectations, demands, fears and hurts - Paul Verryn
• Sobukwe as an inspiring metaphor for business – Bonang Mohale
• The ‘political spirituality’ of Sobukwe’s leadership – Kwandiwe Kondlo
• Why is freedom such a bitter fruit? – Anele Nzimande
• The lonely prisoner was a man of letters – Derek Hook
• Blacks and whites in building a just South Africa – Bobby Godsell
• In his grave, still paying a price for his integrity – Joel Mbhele
• Farmers: Common ground is needed for land reform – Willem Pretorius
• Shallow non-racialism destroys our people – Ishmael Mkhabela
• The indomitable spirit of Sobukwe is testament to our African agenda – Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
• ‘Speaking as one African to another’: The letters of two men in unfriendly times –EF Daitz
• Getting to know his true grace - Andrew Walker
• Sharing my grandfather’s pains and hopes – Otua Sobukwe
• Notes
• Sources
• About the book
• About the author
• Imprint page