A great Pan-Africanist: 16 Robert Sobukwe Quotes

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Robert Sobukwe’s ideas were a threat to the colonial and apartheid regime. They tried to erase his person and intellectual and political from society. His very existence shook the racist power structures. So the apartheid government passed exceptionally cruel laws to suppress him. Sobukwe was incarcerated in solitary confinement for six years under a legal machination commonly known as called “The Sobukwe Clause”. He was the only person to be detained under this legal manipulation.

So what were these ideas that necessitated a government changing its laws in order to isolate one man from society? Robert Sobukwe was strongly Pan-Africanist, believing that the future of South Africa should be in the hands of Black South Africans.

Here are 16 quotes by Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe that are still guiding lights of Pan-Africanism to this day.

Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe in his own words

1. We take our stand on the principle that Afrika is one and desires to be one and nobody, I repeat, nobody has the right to balkanise our land”.

2. The wheel of progress revolves relentlessly and all the nations of the world take their turn at the field-glass of human destiny. Africa will not retreat! Africa will not compromise! Africa will not relent! Africa will not equivocate! And she will be heard! Remember Africa!”

3. “We admire, bless and identify ourselves with the entire nationalist movements in Afrika. They are the core, the basic units, the individual cells of that large organism envisaged, namely, the United States of Afrika”.

4. “In Afrika the myth of race has been propounded and propagated by the imperialists and colonialists from Europe, in order to facilitate and justify their inhuman exploitation of the indigenous people of the land. It is from this myth of race with its attendant claims of cultural superiority that the doctrine of white supremacy stems”.

5. “Beside the sense of a common historical fate that we share with the other countries of Afrika, it is imperative, for purely practical reasons that the whole of Afrika be united into a single unit, centrally controlled. Only in that way can we solve the immense problems that face the continent people”

6. “There is only one race, the human race”

7. “Let me plead with you, lovers of my Africa to carry with you into the world the vision of a new Africa”

8. “The wheel of progress revolves relentlessly and the nations of the world take their turn at the field glass of destiny. Africa will not retreat, Africa will not compromise, Africa will not relent, Africa will not equivocate, and she will be heard! Remember Africa.”

9. “Africanists reject totalitarianism in any form and accept political democracy as understood in the west. We also reject the economic exploitation of the many for the benefit of a few”

10. “I wish to make it clear again that we are anti-nobody. We are pro-Africa. We breathe, we dream, we live Africa because Africa and humanity are inseparable”

11. “We meet here today, to rededicate ourselves to the cause of Africa, to establish contact beyond the grave, with the great African heroes and assure them that their struggle was not in vain”

12. “We regard it as the sacred duty of every African state to strive ceaselessly and energetically for the creation of a United States of Africa from Cape to Cairo and Madagascar to Morocco”

13. “We take our stand on the principle that Africa is one and desires to be one and nobody, I repeat, nobody has the right to balkanize our land”

14. “The philosophy of Africanism holds out the hope of a genuine democracy beyond the stormy sea of struggle”

15. “We must, therefore, appreciate our role. We must appreciate our responsibility. The African people have entrusted their whole future to us. And we have sworn that we are leading them, not to death, but to life abundant.”

16. “The Europeans are a foreign minority group, which has exclusive control of political, economic, social and military power. It is the dominant group. It is the exploiting group, responsible for the pernicious doctrine of White Supremacy, which has resulted in the humiliation, and degradation of the indigenous African people. It is this group which has dispossessed the African people of their land and with arrogant conceit has set itself up as the “guardians”, the “trustees” of the Africans”.

Sobukwe’s incarceration

According to South African History Online:

On 4 May 1960 Sobukwe was sentenced to three years in prison for inciting Africans to demand the repeal of the pass laws. He refused to appeal against the sentence, as well as the aid of an attorney, on the grounds that the court had no jurisdiction over him as it could not be considered either a court of law or a court of justice. At the end of his three-year sentence on 3 May 1963, Parliament enacted a General Law Amendment Act. The Act included what was termed the ‘Sobukwe Clause’, which empowered the Minister of Justice to prolong the detention of any political prisoner indefinitely. Subsequently, Sobukwe was moved to Robben Island where he remained for an additional six years. The Clause was never used to detain anyone else. The Sobukwe Clause was renewed every year – when it was due to expire on 30 June 1965, the government renewed it.

While detained, Robert Sobukwe earned a degree in economics from the University of London. He was released from prison under strict conditions in 1969, upon which he was banished to Galeshewe on the outskirts of Kimberly. Despite being highly qualified, he was refused permission by the apartheid government to take up a local or international teaching opportunities. While under house arrest, he studied Law. However Sobukwe was denied the opportunity to practice law as a banned person was not allowed to be in courts unless they were an accused person or a witness. However, the Department of Justice dropped that condition.

Death of Robert Sobukwe

Robert Sobukwe was became seriously ill with lung cancer shortly after opening his practice. Even in the shadow of death, the National Party apartheid government made his life as difficult as possible. Sobukwe was initially refused permission for travel to Johannesburg for treatment. Even when permission was reluctantly granted for him to receive care, the apartheid security branch tightly controlled his access to family and comrades. The apartheid government insisted that he stick to the onerous conditions of his release, which made it hard for him to access care, and support from his family and friends.

Robert Sobukwe died on 27th of February 1978 from lung complications. He is buried in Graaff-Reinet.