On 27 February 1978, South African freedom fighter and pan-African intellectual Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe succumbed to lung cancer. Despite dying at the relatively young age of 54, by the time of his passing, Sobukwe had made a profound and lasting impression on the struggle against apartheid.
Born on 5 December 1924 in a Black township on the outskirts of Graaff-Reinet in today’s Eastern Cape province, his childhood was marked by academic excellence. He enrolled at Fort Hare University in 1947, an institution whose alumni includes anti-colonial icons such as Robert Mugabe, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela.
Like many before him, Sobukwe’s revolutionary flame was lit at Fort Hare. Becoming a prominent figure on the university’s political scene, he served as the president of the students body and Secretary of the newly formed African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL).
In 1958, Sobukwe led members of the ANC, who, disgruntled by the party’s ‘liberal-left multiracialist’ policies, ceded from the organisation and formed the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC).
On 21 March 1960, Sobukwe led hundreds of people in a march to Orlando police station in Soweto in protest against the so-called Pass Law, which restricted the movement of Black South Africans. A similar protest also took place on the same day in the township of Sharpeville, where 69 people were gunned down in cold blood when apartheid forces opened fire on them. Sobukwe and other PAC leaders were arrested in the aftermath of the demonstrations. He was later sentenced to a three-year prison term.
After completing the prison sentence, Sobukwe was again detained under the so-called General Law Amendment Act, which allowed apartheid authorities to prolong the imprisonment of any political prisoner indefinitely.
In 1969, Sobukwe was released from Robben Island and subsequently banished to Kimberly, where he was placed under 12-hour house arrest and restricted from engaging in political activities. It was in Kimberly, where he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Restrictions imposed on his movements complicated his attempts to receive timely medical care.
Sources:
https://southafrica-info.com/history/robert-sobukwe-one-race-human-race/