Racial Discrimination, South Africa - History, Africa - Biography, South African Politics & Government, Africa - Political Biography

Sobukwe and Apartheid

Name: Sobukwe and Apartheid
Author: Benjamin Pogrund
ISBN: 9780813516929

by Benjamin Pogrund

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Overview

Speaking about Sobukwe, Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said: "I am greatly privileged to have known him and to have fallen under his spell. His long imprisonment, restriction, and early death were a major tragedy for our land and for the world."

"Pogrund's book is welcome not just because it bears witness to the real complexity of black liberation politics but as a monument to a fine and remarkable man . . . who gave voice to the voiceless."--New Statesman & Society

"This is a moving story well told. . . . It is based on unique knowledge and documents, written with all the fluency, commitment and authority of the reporter who himself enraged the regime by exposing conditions in South African prisons."--The Guardian, London

Thirty years ago, Robert Sobukwe led a mass defiance of the pass laws in South Africa. He persuaded blacks to present themselves at police stations and demand arrest, but the nonviolent protest turned to tragedy when the police opened fire, killing sixty-nine. It was March 21, 1960, at Sharpeville, Sobukwe's last day of liberty. He died nearly eighteen years later of lung cancer. Leader of the Pan-Africanist Congress, Sobukwe was both a colleague and rival of figures better known today: Tutu, Mandela, and Buthelezi. Because the Pan-Africanist idea was not in the end supported by the anti-Apartheid leadership, Sobukwe and his contributions have been largely forgotten. It is more than appropriate that his story be told now. Understanding his life is essential to a full understanding of the tensions among contemporary black leaders in South Africa.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Robert Sobukwe is the forgotten man of the South African anti-apartheid struggle, a founder of the Pan-Africanist Congress and chief mover in the anti-pass-law demonstrations that led to the 1960 massacre of unarmed protestors at Sharpeville. Imprisoned for eight years after the event and then banned by the South African government, Sobukwe was largely absent from the public eye from 1960 until his death from cancer in 1978. Pogrund, a journalist now with London's Independent , was a close friend who has written this biography in part to correct the historical record. The result is a consistently fascinating and moving portrait. More important, Pogrund places Sobukwe's life in the larger context of South African history, allowing American readers to understand the evolution of the system of apartheid with startling clarity. He touches, for example, on the government's decision in the late 1950s to reconstruct ``the tribalism that had been on the wane'' among black South Africans. Sobukwe wrote to the author,``I'll never write an autobiography, Benjie.'' Pogrund has done his friend great justice in this volume, an essential book on the South African struggle. June

Library Journal

This readable biography of Robert Sobukwe, leader of the Pan-Africanist Congress, is a welcome addition to the literature on the opposition movements in South Africa. Organized in 1959, the Pan-Africanist Congress, which grew out of a movement within the African National Congress that opposed the multiracialism of the ANC, headed a campaign for the mass defiance of the pass laws. The protest resulted in the Sharpeville massacre in March 1960, and Sobukwe was jailed for nine years. After his release and until his death in 1978, he was placed under house arrest, preventing him from engaging in political activity and severely limiting his interaction with others. Pogrund, a liberal South African journalist, became Sobukwe's close friend before his imprisonment. His detailed portrait of Sobukwe's strengths and weaknesses is a reminder that many remarkable individuals who were denied the right to participate fully in South African society still contributed to the development of political ideas. Recommended for public libraries and academic institutions.-- Maidel Cason, Univ. of Delaware Lib., Newark