Cape Town - The Robben Island Museum (RIM) council has declared 2023/24 as the year of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe.
Sobukwe was a prominent South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and is the founding member of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) political party.
On Wednesday, 60 years to the day, Sobukwe was banished to Robben Island as a political prisoner of a special type.
Sobukwe died 45 years ago.
Dignitaries from the PAC, Sobukwe family and RIM council were taken to Robben Island and given a tour of the house Sobukwe was imprisoned in for six years – now named Sobukwe House.
In attendance, PAC president Mzwanele Nyhontso said the party was happy that their fellow comrade and leader’s legacy was being preserved and welcomed the commemoration.
He said the party was also fiercely guarding against the move to separate Sobukwe from the PAC.
“There is no Sobukwe without the PAC,” he said.
Addressing all in attendance, RIM council chairperson Professor Saths Cooper described Sobukwe as one of the greatest to lead the liberation movement.
“On this day, 60 years ago, Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe was banished to Robben Island as a political prisoner of a special type, and as a council, we made a unanimous decision to declare 2023 as the Year of Robert Sobukwe so we can create an array of touch points throughout the year where we can honour this remarkable man who gave so much of himself for the liberation of our people.
“Robert Sobukwe truly led from the front and was as best known for his motto of ‘Serve, Suffer and Sacrifice’. With an approach of ‘no bail, no plea and no defence’, he led from the front,” Cooper said.
Keynote speaker and anti-apartheid activist Joseph Nong “Bra Joe” Thloloe, said he had been walking in Sobukwe’s footsteps for 80 years and described him as the greatest man he knew.
While he spoke about meeting other big Struggle heroes, Bra Joe stated that meeting Sobukwe during his teenage years moulded him. “He was a selfless man, a man of courage, and he loved his people.
“I have never heard anyone as eloquent as he. He defined who the Africanists are. When I met him, I didn’t know I would be walking in his footsteps for 80 years,” Bra Joe said.
He said what captured him was Sobukwe’s ability to pick up the feel of people, and while describing the values his long-time friend and comrade lived by, he mused: “imagine what South African could be if we all lived by those values.”
He also joked Sobukwe never liked his nickname – Prof (professor). Sobukwe was a lecturer in African Studies at the University of Witwatersrand.
Nomfundo Sobukwe, speaking on behalf of the Sobukwe family, said they were deeply humbled by the honour bestowed upon her grandfather.
She said during her younger years she had felt resentment towards her surname as their home was always raided by the apartheid police. However, today she was proud of her surname and said her grandfather always knew they were meant for better things than struggling and suffering.
An exhibition is being planned to showcase the books Sobukwe read that shaped his political ideology.
Professor Thobeka Mda, chairperson of the Robert Sobukwe Trust (RST) expressed excitement at the RIM council honouring Sobukwe and is keen to explore collaborative opportunities between the two organisations.
“The RST is particularly challenged with fund-raising and human resources, but we have ambitious plans which include partnering with a South African university to create a funded university chair position in the name of Robert Sobukwe, to elevate Mama Sobukwe’s name as a Struggle icon and to develop an education fund, among other things. To this end, we are open to discussions with potential partners who wish to support our work,” Mda said.
As part its repositioning, the RIM, and in the context of its economic recovery plan, will be introducing new intergenerational and other offerings to attract people, especially the youth, to visit the island and improve its immense historic heritage tourism globally.
IOL