Sobukwe’s history written in blood

Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, a pioneer of the noblest cause on Earth, was born on December 5 1924. Had he still been alive, today he would be turning 98.

Nelson Mandela’s contemporary, Sobukwe was subjected to unimaginable pain, suffering and loneliness as the racist apartheid regime separated him from the people. While serving his illegal sentencing, which was subjected to review by a whites-only parliament through what was called the Sobukwe Clause, he was kept in solitary confinement. Prisoners from both the PAC or ANC were not allowed to get near or talk to him. Apartheid prime minister John Vorster once said: “Sobukwe is a man with a magnetic personality, great organising ability and a divine sense of his mission. Comparing Luthuli to Sobukwe, Luthuli is a lightweight.” Chief Albert Luthuli was ANC president from 1952 until his death in 1967.

As the country is plunging from one crisis to another we can draw a lot of lessons and courage from Sobukwe’s heroic life. As a leader of the ANC and after co-founding the PAC he never changed his political standings and principles, he always remained true to his cause.

Belinda Magor, a racist from Benoni who called for a “ban on black people, not pitbulls” would learn from Sobukwe’s lessons on race. While his contemporaries in the ANC were on about “multi-racialism”, Sobukwe originated the word which came to be accepted throughout the world, nonracialism. “We reject multi-racialism in favour of a non-racial democracy because multi-racialism suggests a maintenance of racial groups.”

“Prof as he was affectionately known, argued: “The Africanists take the view that there is only one race to which all belong and that is the human race.” Magor should be taught that when Sobukwe and his peers defined an African, they did so without mentioning the pigmentation or colour of the person.

Forgotten by his own people in SA, Sobukwe’s history will never be airbrushed because it was written with blood, toil and tears.

Kenneth Mokgatlhe