On remembering Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe

Abstract

This review article discusses two recent publications dealing with the life and work of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe (1924-1978), namely Lie on Your Wounds: the prison correspondence of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe (2019), and Pogrund's edited collection Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe: new reflections (2019). The article makes a case for the importance of Sobukwe's prison letters in the ongoing scholarship of this neglected figure of the South African political struggle for freedom. The main aim is to retrieve a view of Sobukwe as an intellectual, a deeply engaged political thinker, and a man committed to ethical leadership. Inevitably, Sobukwe's life and ideas also operate as a vehicle for criticising South Africa's post-apartheid leaders' lack of integrity, corrupt practices, and the forgotten promise of alleviating the suffering of the majority of poor people who elected them.