To the victor one of the spoils of any battle is writing the official history.

To the victor one of the spoils of any battle is writing the official history.

And the ANC has done its level best to write Robert Sobukwe, and others such as Steve Biko, out of our history.

Many born-frees, for example, don't realise that the campaign against the apartheid government's pass laws that led to the Sharpeville massacre in 1961 was organised by the PAC.

Many don't remember that the student revolution in Soweto in 1976 was fomented by Steve Biko's black consciousness movement.

Africanists of all stripes feel the ANC has systematically downplayed or co-opted their contribution to the liberation struggle.

So the sparks could be expected to fly when the Robben Island Museum opened an exhibition this weekend to commemorate the time the PAC's founder spent on the island.

And fly they did. Bishop Waters Toboti, a PAC veteran who spoke at the event, accused the ruling party of ushering in "a sham freedom" on April 27 1994.

"If Sobukwe were to rise from the dead, he would condemn this ANC government," the bishop intoned.

This might well be a fitting time in our history to pause and reflect on the many unsung heroes, of all races and political leanings, who fought to set us free.