Background
Sobukwe was born in Graaff-Reinet in the Cape Province on 5 December 1924. The youngest of six children.
Sobukwe was born in Graaff-Reinet in the Cape Province on 5 December 1924. The youngest of six children.
Educated by missionaries, then at Lovedale College, Cape Province. Admitted to Fort Hare University where he qualified to teach. He taught at Standerton, 90 miles south-west of Johannesburg from 1950 to 1952 when he was dismissed for political activities. In 1953 he was appointed lecturer in African Studies at Witwatersrand University.
Sobukwe studied for a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from London University during his detention.
On May 14, 1969, he was released from Robben Island to live at Kimberley, where he worked for a lawyer, subject to restrictions including a ban on attending public meetings. He was offered a research fellowship in African linguistics at Wisconsin University, United States of America, and lecturing posts at Roosevelt University and the Adlai Stevenson Institute in Chicago. On March 13, 1971, the Ministry of the Interior granted him an exit permit but a few hours later the Ministry of Justice said the ban restricting him to Kimberley could not be lifted to let him travel to Jan Smuts Airport. On June 22, 1971, the Supreme Court ruled that he could not leave the country. One further bid for a one-way ticket to the United States of America was rejected by a ruling of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on December 2, 1971.
Political awareness from his university days as a member of the African National Congress Youth League blossomed into working with the Africanist group within the ANC. After editing “The Africanist” for two years he broke away from the ANC in 1958 because he wanted more militant strategy. In April 1959 he helped to found the Pan African Congress and was appointed president.
After organising demonstrations against the pass laws he was arrested on March 21, 1960 the day of the Sharpeville shootings on charges of incitement. Jailed for three years, he was transferred at the expiry of his sentence to Robben Island prison because John Vorster as Minister of Justice stated it was too great a risk to release him. His continued detention under the Suppression of Communism Act brought world-wide protests, including one from 32 members of Britain’s House of Lords.