31 Facts About Robert Sobukwe

Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe was a prominent South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and founding member of the Pan Africanist Congress, serving as the first president of the organization.

In March 1960, Robert Sobukwe organized and launched a non-violent protest campaign against pass laws, for which he was sentenced to three years in prison on grounds of incitement.

In 1963, the enactment of the "Robert Sobukwe Clause," allowed an indefinite renewal of his prison sentence, and Robert Sobukwe was relocated to Robben Island for solitary confinement.

Robert Sobukwe was born in Graaff-Reinet in the Eastern Cape Province on 5 December 1924, as the youngest child of Hubert and Angelina Robert Sobukwe.

Robert Sobukwe grew up in a poor household and was educated at a local Methodist mission for primary school.

At age 15, Robert Sobukwe continued and eventually completed his secondary education at the Healdtown Institute, which provided a Methodist Christian and liberal arts education to all students.

In 1947, Robert Sobukwe enrolled at the South African Native College at Fort Hare, the premier undergraduate institution for black students of his time.

In 1949, Robert Sobukwe was elected as the first president of the Fort Hare Students' Representative Council, where he proved himself to be a distinguished orator.

In 1950, Robert Sobukwe was appointed as a teacher at a high school in Standerton, a position he lost when he spoke out in favour of the Defiance Campaign in 1952; he was later reinstated.

Robert Sobukwe was an ardent supporter of Africanist views about liberation in South Africa and rejected the idea of working with Whites.

Robert Sobukwe was a strong believer in an Africanist future for South Africa and rejected any model suggesting working with anyone other than Africans, defining African as anyone who lives in and pays his allegiance to Africa and who is prepared to subject himself to African majority rule.

Robert Sobukwe grew discontented with the progress of the liberation struggle during the 1950s, in which the apartheid government continually introduced new means to suppress the liberation struggle.

Robert Sobukwe later left the ANC to form the Pan Africanist Congress, and was elected its first President in 1959.

Robert Sobukwe became known as the Professor or simply "Prof" to his close comrades and followers, a testament to his educational achievements and powers of speech and persuasion.

Robert Sobukwe spoke of the need for black South Africans to "liberate themselves" without the help of non-Africans; Sobukwe defined non-Africans as anyone who lives in Africa or abroad Africa and who does not pay his allegiance to Africa and who is not prepared to subject himself to African majority rule.

Robert Sobukwe argued that whites should be excluded from the ANC as it was impossible to have a relationship between blacks and whites until further progress had been made.

Robert Sobukwe argued that a reliance on whites would disempower the realization that many of these Africans had, that they had the power to overtake a society that had been taken from them.

Robert Sobukwe rejected collaboration with sympathetic whites as he considered such multi-racial cooperation between slave owner and slave as an "ungodly alliance" before equality was attained.

Robert Sobukwe served one year of his sentence in Witbank Prison followed by two years in Pretoria Gaol.

At Robben Island, Robert Sobukwe was in company of other revolutionaries in liberation struggle such as Nelson Mandela, Johnson Mlambo, and John Nyathi Pokela, among many others.

Robert Sobukwe was kept in solitary confinement but enjoyed a unique prisoner-plus status; he was permitted certain privileges including books, magazines, newspapers, civilian clothing, etc.

Robert Sobukwe lived in a separate area on the island and was strictly prohibited from contact with other prisoners, though Sobukwe was able to communicate sporadically through visual signals while outside for exercise.

Robert Sobukwe studied during this time and received a degree in economics from the University of London.

Robert Sobukwe was allowed to live in Kimberley with his family but remained under house arrest.

Robert Sobukwe was restricted through a banning order, which disallowed political activities.

Various restrictions barred Robert Sobukwe from travelling overseas, thus curtailing his attempts to further his education.

Robert Sobukwe completed his law degree with the help of a local lawyer, in Galeshewe, and he then started his own practice in 1975 in Kimberley.

In early 1977, Robert Sobukwe fell ill and applied for permission to receive medical treatment; his request was denied indefinitely until the intervention of his friend Benjamin Pogrund.

Subsequently, in September 1977, Robert Sobukwe travelled to Johannesburg where he was diagnosed with lung cancer and then transferred to a hospital in Cape Town.

Robert Sobukwe died from complications of lung cancer on 27 February 1978 and was buried in Graaff-Reinet on 11 March 1978.

Robert Sobukwe has become a key historical figure in the black liberation struggle of South Africa.