biography
| name: |
Sobukwe, Robert Mangaliso
|
pronunciation:
[sohbookway]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1924–78)
|
| biography:
| African nationalist leader, born in Graaff-Reinet, S South Africa. He was the co-founder and first president of the Pan African Congress, the main rival to the African National Congress (ANC) as opponent of the apartheid regime. His political involvement began while he was at the University of Fort Hare, when he joined the ANC Youth League. In 1958 he broke with the ANC on ‘Africanist’ grounds, advocating African political self-sufficiency, and hostile to alliance with leftists of other races. He was jailed in 1960, and detained on Robben I (1963–9) under legislation (nicknamed the ‘Sobukwe clause’) used only against him. After his release from prison, he lived a further nine years under house arrest and stringent restrictions. |
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