Robert Sobukwe

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Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe (born December 5, 1924 in Graaff-Reinet , † February 27, 1978 in Kimberley ) was a South African nationalist leader and first president of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC).

biography

After attending mission schools, he studied at Fort Hare College , where he was elected President of the Students' Representative Council in 1949. In the same year he joined the African National Congress (ANC) as a member of the youth association founded in 1944 by Nelson Mandela , Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo . Then he worked as a teacher.

In 1952 he was dismissed from his post as a teacher because of his participation in the Defiance Campaign (about: disregard campaign) of the ANC against apartheid of the government under Prime Minister Daniel François Malan . He then worked until 1959 as a lecturer at Fort Hare College , which at that time was the only higher education institution for black Africans in South Africa.

In April 1959 he co-founded the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), which split off from the ANC. At the same time, he was elected the first President of the PAC at the founding meeting. Just one year later he was banned under the Suppression of Communism Act and then sentenced to three years' imprisonment, which ended in 1963 according to the judgment of the judge. However, he remained in custody on Robben Island Prison Island until 1969 because of the General Laws Amendment Act , Act No. 37/1963 the South African Minister of Justice, after the expiry of the one-year period of validity of this law, was given the opportunity to extend an expired prison sentence by a ministerial decision by a further year. This special legal practice went down in apartheid history as the so-called Sobukwe clause and was only applied once, in this case. At the end of his stay in prison, a five-year ban with twelve-hour house arrest was pronounced and renewed in 1975. After his release from prison, Robert Sobukwe was no longer politically active and lived in the municipality of Graaff-Reinet in the east of what was then the Cape Province . In 1977, however, his stay was limited to the town of Kimberley in the north of the Cape Province, where he died a short time later under the restrictions of the ban order.

In 1954 he married Zondeni Veronica Mathe (1927-2018). They had four children together. Zondeni Sobukwe also took part in the fight against apartheid and was awarded the Order of the Baobab a few months before her death .

Honors

In 1999 Sobukwe was posthumously awarded the South African Order for Meritorious Service in gold.

literature

Web links

Commons : Robert Sobukwe  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Manfred Kurz: Indirect rule and violence in South Africa . (Work from the Institute for Africa Customer, 30), Hamburg 1981, pp. 140–141
  2. ↑ a b Zondeni Veronica Sobukwe. sahistory.org.za, accessed August 22, 2018
  3. ↑ List of recipients of the medal 1999 (English), accessed on August 25, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Sobukwe, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sobukwe, Robert Mangaliso (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African politician
DATE OF BIRTH December 5, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Graaff-Reinet
DATE OF DEATH February 27, 1978
Place of death Kimberley