The student leader and Kennedy
The US Senator’s one-on-one meeting with Chief Albert Luthuli in Groutville inspired great hope among the downtrodden black population at the time, writes
THE Durban-born man who successfully invited Senator Robert F Kennedy to South Africa in June 1966 said it was his proudest moment to this day.
Ian Robertson, 71, who lives in the US, was instrumental in getting the brother of former president John F Kennedy to address the National Union of South African Students in Cape Town on June 6, 1966.
Kennedy’s visit was most remembered for a one-on-one meeting with Chief Albert Luthuli in Groutville – a meeting which inspired great hope among the downtrodden black population at the time.
Within two years, both of great leaders would be dead.
Robertson, who was in Durban at the weekend to meet up with fellow members of the class of 1961 at the Durban High School 150th celebrations, said he started being politically conscious and aware while still at primary school.
“Initially, there were double-decker buses in which the top back seats were reserved for non-whites. Quite often the buses would be nearly empty because they took a few whites and drove off leaving non-whites waiting. I used to look at those faces and think, ‘What are we doing?’” said Robertson.
His mother was a civil libertarian and his father a non-racist who believed all God’s people were equal. Robertson joined the Progressive Party in 1959, in his early teens. Beyond that, student politics dominated his life. He became the president of the SRC at the University of Natal and later the president of Nusas (The National Union of South African Students).
In the 1960s Robertson said he and his colleagues were inspired by the US civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
“Robert Kennedy had been forceful with the civil rights legislation and fighting racial segregation in America. After his brother was assassinated, he assumed the mantle of the Kennedy legacy. He came to represent that passion for human rights which you do not find very much in many politicians. He was immensely inspiring,” Robertson said.
Nusas had an annual national day of affirmation for human freedom when it invited speakers to give a speech about human freedom. “While there were certain people the who were willing and capable in South Africa, I thought we should look outside too. At the Nusas conference of 1965, I proposed him to address us the next year. The place erupted with applause. They all agreed that he was the one.”
Nusas then sent a letter both
He came to represent that passion for human rights which you do not find in many politicians
directly and in “dubious” ways, because they were not sure it would reach Kennedy, because of the security apparatus of the time.
“We did not think he was going to come because he was a busy man. A very important man. We hoped he would come. However, the government was furious,” he said.
A month before Kennedy came to South Africa, Robertson was banned under the Suppression of Communism Act.
“BJ Vorster, the minister of administrative justice, had signed the banning order and sent it to Cape Town. I had been on tour around South Africa giving speeches. They waited for me to arrive in the Nusas offices. A police colonel called me and wanted me to come see him right away. I was cheeky and said I could not, but would see him Friday afternoon or something.
“Twenty minutes later he arrived with someone else and started reading me a 20-page banning order. It took me a few seconds to realise I was being banned – this was it,” Robertson said.
Robertson described the devastating impact. He could not go to a book shop, study at a university or have anything he said quoted. Fortunately, he was offered a scholarship abroad. He took it and ended up in the US.
When Robertson met Kennedy, they talked about America, the Vietnam War and his personal situation. They also talked about South Africa, on which Robertson thought Kennedy was well informed.
“He asked me if this place was bugged and I said yes. He told me to turn on the radio loud and jump all over the place. He said this would disrupt the bugging,” said Robertson.
“What was electrifying about Kennedy is that he projected ‘the air of youth’ in his forties. “The reason he projected as such is that while his brother was alive, he was seen as a bit of a sidekick and was disliked by some. When he (John) was assassinated, Robert transformed after reading a lot. Young people sensed he was learning, changing and growing,” said Robertson.
Robertson described Kennedy’s speech to the students as electrifying. He said his last paragraph of the “Ripple of Hope” speech was still being quoted widely around the world.
Robertson said the students had not met Chief Albert Luthuli but had sent him correspondence. They had sent him a letter asking him to be honorary president, which he could not reply to because he was banned. “We heard indirectly that he had agreed and we put his name on our letterhead, to the government’s fury.”
Robertson said Kennedy’s being shot was “the end of a dream”.
“If he could have been president, people believed things would have been different. We suddenly fell of the cliff. We would not have heard Richard Nixon, the Vietnam war would have ended sooner, there would have been much progress in human rights. He was thinking with new and fresh ideas, unlike most politicians who had baggage.”
Robertson said Nusas tried to invite Martin Luther King jr to address members, but King was denied a visa by the South African government.
Robertson has a BA from the University of Natal, a teaching degree from Oxford, an MA from Cambridge University and an EdD from Harvard University. He has taught secondary school pupils in the US and UK, university students and has written textbooks in sociology for university students which have been translated into a number of languages.
He said he loved the optimism in South Africa. “I feel offended though by the corruption.”
Today he spends most of his time travelling, reading and writing sociology.