13 September 1963 (Bc7)
Hullo Little Woman!
What a pleasure it was to read your letter. Your voice rang through every sentence I read and for that reason I have read it over and over again.
I wrote to Mili last week. I hope she’ll be able to read my Sotho. The trouble is we had evolved a new Sotho orthography at the Wits33 and in my letter to Mili I used it here and there. It seems so childish to me to have to write ke a tsamaea34 as three words when in fact it is one word keatsamaea. I give you your due there, Zulu is more logical in that direction, writing it ngiyahamba. Xhosa for no reason at all has decided to take the middle course with ndiya hamba.
I am glad you were able to have the kids placed, darling. I do hope Mili settles down and is successful in her exams. […] Yes, you told me about Dlanga, Baby, and there is no fear of my becoming jealous. I know you too well to distrust you. I have told you time and again that you are a rare woman. I did not say that to flatter you. I mean it.
I have not yet received the certificates. Please send them as soon as you can, Child. I cannot register at the University until I have sent the certificates. And what about the photographs? I have the Album – all I lack are the pictures!
I received an interesting letter from Fabian. He told me [he] was going to see you that week. I have also received one from Buti. He is just as ignorant as Fabian is of Prison procedure!
The lectures might arrive any day now though no tuition is offered by Wolsey Hall in two of the subjects I have chosen. I hope to get information about the books I can read on them. The subjects are: Introduction to Scientific Method and Structure of International Society. If I can’t get books on them I’ll be compelled to take two others in their stead. I’d be sorry to do so because I really am interested in these two.
By the way, Fabian tells me Hilda had a Caesarean. Is it a boy or girl? How many are there now? And what about Jimmy?35 Isn’t he a sub-inspector yet? And what about Tennyson Nyovane? Is he is still with the Joh’burg Municipality?
I have started work on the garden. The soil is extremely sandy and is infested with slugs and snails. I intend to lay out a vegetable garden and a small flower plot. How is your garden faring? If I have as much success with this one as we had with ours at home I’ll be delirious with joy.
Tell Fabian I received the four records he ordered and I have acquired two more. I have looked through the papers, Kid: electric recorders are very dear – in the neighbourhood of R50. I can’t afford that. Fabian has already spent over £100 on me. And, of course, you have borne the burden for years now, ALONE. And you need every penny for the kids. I wrote Mili that we wanted them to go as far with their education as they wished.
I shall not be able to send Birthday cards in time for the twins’ birthday. Will you please buy them, Sweet, and present them on behalf of both of us? I may be able to send them a little birthday present later on. I’ll send them a telegram, at least.
Where is Jabi working at present? Is she still with you or is she at Pimville? Give my greetings to her, please. She has been fond of me in her sulky way. How is Mama’s arm?
I am O.K. Kid and thank you for the R10 you sent me through Benjie. He told me about the trousers and that the two of you thought that my taste in clothes is too conservative! Well I wonder what you’ll feel like when you see me in the loud shirts and ties, the pointed shoes and narrow trousers sported by the fashionable crowd. I’ll NEVER wear those things, Sweet. I am not going to be ordered about by fashion designers!
Well, cheerio Kid. God bless you. Love to the boys and to Mili & Dini when next you see them.
Your loving husband,
Mangi
P.S. I have just received the photographs. What a pleasure! Thanks a lot, Kid. Keep on sending them. You all haven’t changed this bit!! “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever” says Keats. I agree. Mangi
Robert Sobukwe
to Veronica Sobukwe,
28 September 1963 (Bc8)
Hello Darling!
I sent you a telegram last week asking you to forward the original certificates and to keep the copies. It is something we should have done earlier. But then I never could do things when they should have been done.
A copy of the Regulations I received from the University of London states that they will NOT accept copies from overseas students. They fear, probably, that students will forge copies, although, if they were to ask me, I could tell them that even originals are forged by some people.
I think I told you that I had written to Mili. My next letter will have to be addressed to Dini. I have ordered two “Junior” books from the Reader’s Digest. I hope to give those to Dedani & Dali as their birthday gifts.
I read in the Press quite recently of a new method of teaching English that they have introduced into Kenya schools with spectacular results. As soon as I found out whether they have published any books on the subject I’ll let you know so that you may start on the young fellows there at home.
Thank you for the photographs. They tell a whole story. They took me back to Lovedale, to Ladysmith, to Baragwanath36 with Mili absolutely helpless in our hands, to Graaff-Reinet with a taxi rushing Dalindyebo to the doctor, to Ma Simelane pushing their prams to the clinic. I even remember you carrying Dini on your back every morning to White City.37 What a life it has been!
When I saw your photograph with Dini in Durban and also at the clinic, memories came rushing back. And I remember our one table and one chair borrowed from Mama. We started right from the bottom, Little Girl, and turned a house into a home. Our one fault was that as we went forward, we tended to forget the One who had brought us together, and has blessed us with all we have! It will never happen again, I assure you.
The Defence and Aid people wrote me from their Cape Town offices asking if there was anything I needed. I asked them for vegetable and flower seeds. I was hoping that by the time you visited me they would be ready so that you could take back with you, for Mama, flowers and vegetables from my own garden. I don’t think that the hope will be realised. It is rather late now.
I have had my teeth attended to. That “gate” that they made at the Wits,38 I have had filled up. You’ll see the “bridge” when you come. It has not been fitted yet.
Father Webber of Pretoria has written to say he is very anxious to meet you and I have assured him that you are just as eager to make his acquaintance. When you visit Vemba39 next, please ask them to take you to meet him.
The lectures still haven’t come though I have received a letter informing me that they are on the way. All that remains now is for me to register with London University before the end of the year and then I’ll be able to settle down to solid work.
I have plenty of reading matter and am receiving more week by week from people I have never met.
We are having glorious weather down here though the days can be depressingly hot.
The days I still find difficult are Saturday evenings and Sundays. They remind me too much of baking in the kitchen and that “Brunch” on Sunday between 11 and 12! And yet, when I was still a convict at Stofberg,40 those were the days we looked forward to eagerly, because they were days of “rest” after a week of perpetual motion and weariness. How strange we human beings are, and how short our memories are, too, don’t you think?
Lauretta [Ngcobo]41 too, has written. She says they are in Swaziland with Stanley and his wife. She has a teaching post at Manzini. Stanley’s wife is a trained nurse. She’ll probably find a post, too, though she’s been working in a factory in Johburg because of varicose veins. In a factory she can at least rest her legs whereas as a nurse she has to be on her feet the whole day! You girls have wonderful stamina, for sure!
Well, cheerio, Little Woman. Give my love to