ON A misty winter day on Robben Island, a group of inmates were being escorted to suffer assault and abuse at a torturing field called " Die landbou ".
The work span was called "Die landbouspan". Warders insisted we keep wearing our khaki cheese cloth caps and only take them off when white prison department officers passed by.
On this particular day, with the maritime foghorn blurring to warn ships of land proximity, walking in fours in front were Nontase Shweni, Burgon Khoboka, Johnson Mlambo and China Chilwane, who saw a figure bend down behind barbed wire watched by four heavily armed guards and two dog handlers.
Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe scooped some soil and then dropped it.
A hush descended as this foursome took their caps off. We all followed suit, acknowledging Sobukwe's gesture.
Warders became agitated and the Kleynhans warder brothers shouted "keep your caps on your bloody heads".
Nothing captured the magnetic poignancy of Sobukwe like this one moment when historical cause and effect gelled and the heavy mist seemed to shed some supreme light on him.
Sobukwe experienced the most extreme form of isolation and imprisonment on the Island. Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu could chat daily with Zeph Mothopeng and Nyati Pokela in B-Section. Sobukwe had no one to speak to on a daily basis.
By being subjected to this treatment on Robben Island and in Kimberley, Sobukwe literally scripted the human rights foundations of SA's Constitution that prohibits any legislation against individual persons.
Sobukwe was a consummate democrat who understood that the price of freedom was worth the lives of freedom fighters.
His thinking on democracy cannot be isolated from his conception of the African personality.
For Sobukwe, democracy was positive action based on self-reliance. Far ahead of his time, he predicted the emergence of China on the world stage.
He warned against elitism, whereby sections of the oppressed would be used to exploit their own people, ensuring the status quo remained in favour of the oppressive social order that engendered the exploitation of the many by the few.
Similarly, totalitarianism was irreconcilable with Africanist tenets of humanism and self-reliance. For Sobukwe, the African masses were essential to all forms of economic development.
He believed that the ideal of a successful economy was full employment based on democratic participation and social equity.
To sustain the African personality, a continental social order based on African unity was basic.
The way to African unity had to be led by Pan Africanist political parties that embraced the principle of the participation of the poor African masses to form a continental unitary state as opposed to a federal arrangement. Sobukwe warned against South African exclusiveness.
A union of African democrats was the only way to ensure Africans benefitted from the soil and wealth of the continent - the mineral resources were there to benefit the masses.
Dictatorship and democracy were a contradiction in terms. It was important for social development to generate the positive culture of thrift free of tribal and ethnic inhibitions.
Sobukwe was at pains to remind Africans never to forget the cruel injustices of slavery, colonialism and racism.
As South Africa celebrates the benefits of Sobukwe's legacy, he remains largely unacknowledged.
By renaming major national assets after him, some justice will be done to acknowledge Sobukwe as an icon of this country.
- Sunday, February 27, marks the 33rd anniversary of Robert Sobukwe's death
SOBUKWE a leading icon of SA
ON A misty winter day on Robben Island, a group of inmates were being escorted to suffer assault and abuse at a torturing field called " Die landbou ".
The work span was called "Die landbouspan". Warders insisted we keep wearing our khaki cheese cloth caps and only take them off when white prison department officers passed by.
On this particular day, with the maritime foghorn blurring to warn ships of land proximity, walking in fours in front were Nontase Shweni, Burgon Khoboka, Johnson Mlambo and China Chilwane, who saw a figure bend down behind barbed wire watched by four heavily armed guards and two dog handlers.
Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe scooped some soil and then dropped it.
A hush descended as this foursome took their caps off. We all followed suit, acknowledging Sobukwe's gesture.
Warders became agitated and the Kleynhans warder brothers shouted "keep your caps on your bloody heads".
Nothing captured the magnetic poignancy of Sobukwe like this one moment when historical cause and effect gelled and the heavy mist seemed to shed some supreme light on him.
Sobukwe experienced the most extreme form of isolation and imprisonment on the Island. Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu could chat daily with Zeph Mothopeng and Nyati Pokela in B-Section. Sobukwe had no one to speak to on a daily basis.
By being subjected to this treatment on Robben Island and in Kimberley, Sobukwe literally scripted the human rights foundations of SA's Constitution that prohibits any legislation against individual persons.
Sobukwe was a consummate democrat who understood that the price of freedom was worth the lives of freedom fighters.
His thinking on democracy cannot be isolated from his conception of the African personality.
For Sobukwe, democracy was positive action based on self-reliance. Far ahead of his time, he predicted the emergence of China on the world stage.
He warned against elitism, whereby sections of the oppressed would be used to exploit their own people, ensuring the status quo remained in favour of the oppressive social order that engendered the exploitation of the many by the few.
Similarly, totalitarianism was irreconcilable with Africanist tenets of humanism and self-reliance. For Sobukwe, the African masses were essential to all forms of economic development.
He believed that the ideal of a successful economy was full employment based on democratic participation and social equity.
To sustain the African personality, a continental social order based on African unity was basic.
The way to African unity had to be led by Pan Africanist political parties that embraced the principle of the participation of the poor African masses to form a continental unitary state as opposed to a federal arrangement. Sobukwe warned against South African exclusiveness.
A union of African democrats was the only way to ensure Africans benefitted from the soil and wealth of the continent - the mineral resources were there to benefit the masses.
Dictatorship and democracy were a contradiction in terms. It was important for social development to generate the positive culture of thrift free of tribal and ethnic inhibitions.
Sobukwe was at pains to remind Africans never to forget the cruel injustices of slavery, colonialism and racism.
As South Africa celebrates the benefits of Sobukwe's legacy, he remains largely unacknowledged.
By renaming major national assets after him, some justice will be done to acknowledge Sobukwe as an icon of this country.
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