Of all the remarkable photographs that Peter Magubane took of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, perhaps the image that best encapsulates the first leader of the Pan Africanist Congress is one that at first glance might be overlooked. It is a photograph taken early on 21 March 1960, one of the first in a sequence that Magubane captured on that fateful day, which would culminate in the tragedy of the Sharpeville Massacre. The image has a transporting quality: one can imagine the chilliness of an autumnal Soweto morning, the scent of the leaves of the eucalyptus tree in the background, the scratchy surface of the gravel road beneath the feet of the men in the picture. It involves us. We, as viewers, are positioned alongside – slightly behind – a man who, like us, is witness to the scene. And while we are situated as onlookers, we are also – like him – invited to join the others, to step into the tableau before us, and take up a place in the history-making events that are about to unfold.

There is a spectrum of emotions on display in Sobukwe's comrades. Some are smiling, buoyed by the camaraderie of the moment; others are serious, cognisant perhaps of the magnitude of events about to take place; one appears hesitant, as if thinking twice about what their proposed course of action will commit him to; another seems to be awaiting clarification in response to a question he has just directed to Sobukwe; yet another is caught mid-stride, as if he can't wait to start the campaign, to begin the walk to Orlando police station. Yet despite these varying responses, all of these men are connected to one another and grounded by Sobukwe's presence; they are drawing confidence and courage from the political vision and the leadership that he so clearly embodies. Within a few minutes they will set off, heading towards the police station, where they will offer themselves up for arrest as part of the Pan Africanist Congress anti-pass campaign, taking thus a step which will change not only their lives, but eventually also the course of a nation.

A. A chain of reaction

The significant portion of our social milieu begins with the expansion of the markets founded by the rising commercial capital of Western Europe at the turn of the fifteenth century. Succeeding years witnessed the ‘discovery’ of new lands by the Europeans, the Papal award of the whole of Africa to the Portuguese, increased European slave raids on Africa that denuded Africa of Africans and led to the establishment in the Americas of the greatest mass chattel slavery that the world had ever known. Africa had been successfully robbed of Africans. It was this chattel slavery that contributed substantially to the initiation of the European industrial revolution which in turn resulted in the unleashing of the forces of reaction which culminated in the rape of Africa at the close of the last century.

B. Land robbery and political subjugation

Early European settlement of Africa, especially of its southern tip, was a direct result of the rise of European commercial capital. Wave upon wave of European settlers came to Africa and their penetration of the interior involved the loss of sovereignty by the indigenous peoples and the alienation of more and more portions of their land. With the rise of the industrial capital of Europe and its increased search for raw materials and more markets, the partition of Africa went apace and the doctrine of ‘effective occupation’ was enunciated, a theory calculated to ‘sugar coat’ the bitter pills of land robbery and political subjugation. More and more settlers came into the country until today there are 5,000,000 Europeans who up to the dawn of African liberation had constituted themselves as a ruling class over the 250,000,000 indigenous peoples. Africans had been successfully robbed of Africa.

C. Established by the sword

The advent of European imperialism and colonialism to Africa brought in its wake the phenomenon of white domination, whether visible or invisible, which is characterised by the political oppression, economic exploitation and social degradation of the indigenous African masses. Throughout this historical epoch, the age of white domination, whenever the spokesmen or representatives of white domination have sprouted a conscience, they have referred to the phenomenon as the ‘spread of Western civilisation’ or ‘the extension of Christian trusteeship’.

Within a month's time we shall have passed another milestone on the long and tedious journey to freedom. Others, too, will have passed a milestone. But they will be travelling on the treacherous and slippery road to doom. In both cases there applies the law of inevitability. But the goals are different and so is the spirit of the travellers. The forces of ‘Tokoloho ka nako ea rona’ are marching on, buoyant and confident, not looking at their hill, but climbing it: On the other hand, the forces of retrogression, stagnation and ‘man's inhumanity to man’ are administering the last desperate kicks of a dying horse. Their doom is sealed; and they [know] it. The dawn of the glory of freedom is breaking, when man shall establish control over things and not over other men: And we know it. And thus we move into 1958.

The passing year has witnessed historic events, chief among which have been the women's militant struggle against ‘Passes for Women’ and the militant disciplined struggle of our nurses against nursing apartheid. There have been the long-drawn-out Treason Trials and the magnificent June 26th ‘Stay at Home’ observance. There has been the glorious Bus Boycott side by side with the abortive ‘Economic Boycott of Cigarettes and Tobacco’. We have witnessed during 1957 a desire for unity and solidarity among the masses and a tendency towards crippling and contemptuous bureaucracy on the part of our leaders. It is a known fact that the Bus boycott was sabotaged by some unnamed individual ‘higher-up’, acting under certain influences. It is equally well known that quite a number of branches in the Transvaal heard about the planned Economic Boycott after the police and the manufacturers had been informed about it by ‘New Age’ and ‘The Star’ and ‘Die Transvaler’ etc. In fact, 1957 has been a year of ‘Directives’ and ‘Counter-Directives’ from a variety of sources. But the struggle continues.

It continues, because the African masses today owe loyalty to the movement for liberation, to the concept of a disciplined, principled struggle for freedom, rather than to a particular individual or to a particular organisation.

Case No. L.173/60

Date: 4/4/1960

In the Magistrate's Court for the Regional Division of South Transvaal, held at Johannesburg

Before: Mr. J. de K. Du Plessis

REGINA versus:

Charge: As per Charge Sheet attached.

Plea: All the Accused REFUSED TO PLEAD.

For the Crown: Mr. J. Robinson.

For the Defence: All the Accused – IN PERSON.

Transcribers: Mesdames: McKenzie, Kuhn, Sykes & Vos.

Interpreter: Douglas Rasmen.

[…]

Cross-examination of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe

The Court. You are the Accused No. 1 in this case?

Sobukwe. Yes, Your Worship.

The Court. Yes – you may carry on now.

Sobukwe. I am president of the Pan-Africanist Congress, elected to that position unanimously at the inaugural convention of the Pan-Africanist Congress … For the same reason, thinking on a continental level, we stand for government of the Africans, by the Africans, for the Africans, with everybody who owes his only allegiance to the Continent of Africa and is prepared to accept the democratic rule of an African majority being regarded as an African. Our analysis of the South African situation has led us to the conclusion that we can best achieve our objectives by clearly defining our ultimate goals and drawing up a programme of action which we shall faithfully pursue instead of reacting to the legislation of the White Parliament as it flows from that Parliament. We decided to bring about the immediate abolition of the Pass Laws because that was the immediate needs of the African people. That was their demand. Before I proceed with the present case, Your Worship, I would like to give a picture of the structure of our organisation. Right at the bottom of the organisation, forming the nucleus so to speak of the organisation, are the general members of the Pan-Africanist Congress, fifteen or more of them constituting a branch. Each branch elects a Branch Executive.

Mr. Speaker Sir, Sons and Daughters of Afrika. Just over three months ago, on the 6th April, we met in the Communal Hall in Orlando, Johannesburg, to launch the ship of freedom – the Pan Africanist Congress. On that historic day the African people declared total war against white domination, not only in South Africa but throughout the continent. On that day there entered into the maelstrom of South African politics an organisation dedicated to the cause of African emancipation and independence; an organisation committed to the overthrow of white supremacy and the establishment of an Africanist Socialist Democracy.

Oppressed versus oppressor

It is just over three months that the Pan Africanist Congress has been born, but within that short space of time she has successfully pinpointed the basic assumptions in our struggle, namely that:

• 1. The illiterate and semi-literate masses of the African people are the key to, the core and cornerstone of the struggle for democracy in this country.

• 2. African nationalism is the only liberatory creed that can weld these masses who are members of heterogeneous tribes into a solid, disciplined and united fighting force; provide them with loyalty higher than that of the tribe and give formal expression to their desire to be a nation.

• 3. The struggle in South Africa is part of the greater struggle throughout the continent for the restoration to the African people of the effective control of their land. The ultimate goal of our struggle, therefore, is the formation of a United States of Afrika.

These pronouncements have struck a responsive chord in the hearts of the Sons and Daughters of the land, and awakened the imagination of the youth of our land while giving hope to the aged who for years have lived in the trough of despair. Indeed, the aged can now truly say:

The issues are clear-cut. The Pan Africanist Congress has done away with equivocation and clever talk. The decks are cleared, and in the arena of South African politics there are today only two adversaries: the oppressor and the oppressed; the master and the slave. We are on the eve of a continental showdown between the forces of evil and the forces of righteousness; the champions of oppression and the champions of freedom.

This interview was conducted by Gail Gerhart, who at that time was a graduate student at Columbia University. It took place during the mornings of 8 and 9 August 1970, in a rental car on the outskirts of Kimberley. Because of police surveillance and Sobukwe's banning order, no notes were made during the course of the interview. Gerhart audio-recorded her best recollection of what was said immediately after the meeting.

Gerhart. When did you first become interested in politics?

Sobukwe. My first awareness of politics was in 1948 at Fort Hare when I took a course in Native Administration. This course was taught by Ntloko and there was a text by Hanley(?). I had always known most of the facts as such, for example that Africans had three representatives in Parliament, but up to then I had merely accepted these as facts which one had to learn, to memorize, without thinking of their implications. During this course I began to realize what the reality was, for example that these white MPs had no effect on policy, in spite of the fact that they were eloquent speakers.

Ntloko was an AAC man, and the AAC was very influential at Fort Hare in those days. Most of us agreed with what the AAC stood for, except we didn't like the fact that they were not African nationalists. The Nationalists’ victory in 1948 helped politicize me.

Godfrey Pitje and I started the Youth League at Fort Hare. Pitje was the one who had had a connection with the early Youth League in the Transvaal. He was our link. He had known Lembede.

Gerhart. Did Pitje give you documents drawn up by the early Youth League, or statements of Lembede?

Sobukwe. No, we never saw these. We drew up our own documents. It was all conveyed to us through conversation and discussion.

Gerhart. Did you favor the efforts in the late 1940s to reunite the AAC with the ANC?

Sobukwe. Yes, very strongly. We wanted total unity, though; not a federation. We always felt that federations were inherently weak. This was also the case with the Africanists later when Madzunya's group wanted to federate with us. We wanted unity, not a federation.

Joe Thloloe was one of the founding members of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), having joined at the time of the November 1958 break with the African National Congress. Thloloe played a crucial part in the anti-pass campaign of 1960 which led to the Sharpeville Massacre and which resulted in his imprisonment. He was incarcerated first at Stoneyard Prison in Boksburg and then at the Stofberg Prison in the northern Free State, where, with fellow PAC detainees, he was exposed to many of the harshest disciplinary measures of the apartheid system. It was during prison that Thloloe turned to journalism.

After release, Thloloe worked at The World and then at the Rand Daily Mail as the first black journalist of the township edition; a second period of incarceration followed the Soweto Uprising in 1976. Thloloe was banned under the Suppression of Communism Act in 1981 and arrested and imprisoned several more times by the apartheid government. In 1988 Thloloe was appointed the managing editor of The Sowetan.

Thloloe served as chairman of the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) and president of the Union of Black Journalists and Media Workers Association of South Africa. He was the South African Press Ombudsman from August 2007 to January 2013. In 2012 he was awarded the Order of Ikhamanga for his contribution to the liberation struggle, literary writing and journalism.

Thloloe was a long-time associate of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, and it is his memories of Sobukwe and the early days of the PAC that form the focus of this interview, conducted in 2014.

Hook. Joe, you were a member of the PAC, if I understand correctly, very early on? 1959?

Thloloe. I joined in 1958, on the 2nd of November 1958. That's the day the Africanists broke away from the ANC.

Hook. What was the feeling among the PAC people at that time? I mean it must have been one of excitement and enthusiasm?

Thloloe. What had happened was that there was the Transvaal Congress of the ANC, and it started on the Friday night with Luthuli giving an address to the Congress.

In April 1969, Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe was finally released from Robben Island, where he had been kept under conditions of near-complete solitary confinement for six years. Nine years earlier, on 21 March 1960, Sobukwe had led the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) in what he called a ‘Positive Action’ campaign, protesting against the draconian pass laws that regulated the movement, and thereby the lives, of all black South Africans. This mass action was met with a violent response on the part of the South African police. In Sharpeville, south of Johannesburg, officers opened fire on a crowd of protesters, killing approximately 80 and injuring as many as 297 people. This event – the Sharpeville Massacre – drew widespread and international attention to the injustices of South Africa's system of apartheid and it led to a three-year jail sentence for Sobukwe for inciting people to protest against the laws of the country.

Not content that by May 1963 Sobukwe would have served the three years of his mandated sentence, the National Party government intervened by invoking a provision of the General Law Amendment Act. The resultant ‘Sobukwe Clause’ enabled Parliament to prolong the detention of any political prisoner on a year-by-year basis without bringing them to trial. It was on this questionable yet legal basis that Sobukwe was moved to Robben Island and kept apart from other prisoners – technically, he was no longer a prisoner as he had served his sentence. He remained there for a further six years. A short report published in the Rand Daily Mail provides a description of Sobukwe's living conditions on the Island:

Nobody disputes our contention that Africa will be free from foreign rule. What is disputed by many, particularly the white ruling minority, is that she will be free either ‘within our lifetime’ or by 1963, or even 1973 or 1984. However, the African nationalist movements which met at the All-African People's Conference in Accra in 1958 put down 1963 as the target date for African freedom.

If, however, by this date there are still parts of Africa that are under foreign rule, then certainly, they said, by 1973, every part of Africa must be free. Even though I live in South Africa, I have no doubt that this prophecy will be fulfilled. But the question is: AFTER FREEDOM THEN WHAT?

The ready answer of white ruling minorities is: chaos and a reversion to barbarism and savagery. The ready answer of all Pan-Africanists, and this includes all genuine African nationalist organisations on the continent, is: the creation of a United States of Africa and the advent of a new era – an era of freedom, creative production and abundance.

To many Africans the United States of Africa symbolises the fulfilment of an emotional urge for formal African unity. What its nature and structure will be – and its role and tasks – have not been determined. But before I give an outline of the United States of Africa we envisage, I will list some of the obstacles we are bound to come across. Let us assume that by 1973, every part of the continent will be free from foreign domination. In some parts the change-over will have been comparatively peacefully achieved. In others, there will have been bitter fighting, which will leave in its wake a legacy of destruction and hate. In such countries the first ten or fifteen years will be years of re-adjustment and feverish reconstructions. There will be plenty of work to do, and the capital for that work will be forth-coming from both East and West – because there can be no greater guarantee against both political and economic instability than the final recognition of the supremacy of African interests in Africa.