Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe
| Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe | |
|---|---|
"Africa for Africans"
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| President of the Pan Africanist Congress | |
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In office 6 April 1959 – 1963 |
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| Succeeded by | Potlako Leballo |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
December 5, 1924 Graaff-Reinet, Cape Province, Union of South Africa |
| Died | February 27, 1978 (aged 53) Kimberley, Cape Province, South Africa |
| Political party | Pan Africanist Congress |
| Residence | Kimberley, Cape Province, South Africa |
| Alma mater | University of Fort Hare |
| Occupation | Teacher and lawyer |
Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe (5 December 1924 – 27 February 1978) was a prominent South African political dissident, who founded the Pan Africanist Congress in opposition to South Africa under apartheid. In 2004 Sobukwe was voted 42nd in the SABC3's Great South Africans.
During his lifetime, Sobukwe was considered to be so dangerous by the apartheid government that it arranged for its parliament to enact the "Sobukwe clause", a statute which on its face seemed to grant broadly applicable powers, but was specifically intended to authorize the arbitrary extension of Sobukwe's imprisonment.
Sobukwe was born in Graaff-Reinet in the Cape Province on 5 December 1924. The youngest of six children, he came from a poor household and was educated locally. He attended a Methodist college at Healdtown and later Fort Hare University where he joined the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) in 1948 as well as the president of the Student Representative Council (SRC).
In 1952 Sobukwe achieved notoriety backing the Defiance Campaign. He identified with the Africanists within the African National Congress (ANC) and in 1957 left the ANC to become Editor of The Africanist newspaper in Johannesburg.
He 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. He later left the ANC to form the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), and was elected its first President in 1959.
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