I am constantly amazed – although I shouldn’t be – to find the number of friends you have here and in other parts of the world. There is a Mrs. Thomas C. Taylor (of 50, Plymouth Avenue North, Rochester, New York 14614), for example. I realise the pressures on your allocation of letters, Bob, but I wonder whether you could at some stage manage a few words to her? She is not after thanks for anything, but feels that some direct contact with you would enable her to put a little more reality and content into her prayers. She is, as you will gather, a very devout Christian, a Presbyterian, I believe.
I am enclosing an article from Saturday’s “Mail” which might be of interest to you.62 I will also send the original booklet to you. It is a completely factual account of the churches in South Africa, and the reader is left to draw his own conclusions. The conclusions which I have drawn in the enclosed article are probably controversial. Do you think I have painted too grim a picture?
I am going into the question of the missing books for your studies and will have them sent to you as soon as possible.
In regard to Mrs Mittag,63 I am writing to her to tell her about your letter to her. I shall, however, request her to continue sending you records. This is the arrangement I made when I was in Cape Town, and I can promise you that everyone concerned is only too delighted to assist you in this small way.
There is still complete confusion about the London “Observer” subscription, by the way. No-one can offer any kind of an explanation about it.
Can you send me the renewal notice for the “Reader’s Digest” so that I can attend to it without delay? Frankly, after our other torturous dealings with the C.N.A. I would rather present them with a renewal notice than attempt to take out a new subscription!
Your telegram about the twins’ birthday was received and was promptly acted upon. I sent out two birthday cards, inscribed “All my love, from your Tata”, and I tried to make my handwriting as neat and small as possible to make it look at least something like yours. I also sent them some small presents. I hope my telegram acknowledging yours reached you safely. I must say that the Robben Island authorities are extremely helpful in enabling you to send and receive telegrams. I can’t imagine that there is another prisoner in the country who has this facility.
How are you placed for clothing? Particularly with the coming of the summer, is there anything you need? Is there perhaps any chance of your being able to use that little beach near your bungalow for an occasional swim? If so, let me know and I shall send you a swimming costume.
What you wrote about my work is very true. I know that the desire within me to be academically honest and fair and to overcome my deep-rooted prejudices against the Communists can tend to push me into being over-fair towards them with equally disastrous results. On the other hand, I am applying uncompromising standards to the use or non-use of material, and unfortunately or otherwise, I am finding that a lot of the well-known allegations simply do not stand up to close scrutiny. Or is it that I am unable to track down the direct evidence? To cheer you up, though, let me add that I am digging up other previously unknown facts!
The work is going reasonably well, but I have had to resign myself to accepting that this cannot be the definitive study I had originally envisaged. We are still too close to events and it will be many years before we are able to get hold of all the necessary information. Anyway, I hope that my study, broad as parts of it will necessarily have to be, will still be solid enough to be of some significance.
I am leaving at the end of this week for a trip to Natal and Basutoland in search of additional material. I will be away for about two weeks.
One final point: I was surprised to hear that you apparently have not been receiving the weekly parcels of fruit which I arranged, and for which I paid the jail authorities.
The authorities have not advised me of any change in the situation so I have naturally assumed that the arrangement was still being adhered to. Can you please let me know what is happening?
I have just had some photographs of Jenny taken, and I am enclosing a couple to show you why I am such a proud father.
My very warm greetings to you. I continue to pray for you.
Sincerely,
Robert Sobukwe
to Veronica Sobukwe,
20 October 1964 (Bc20)
Hullo Darling!
As I pointed out in the telegram I sent you, I haven’t received your letter of the 10th September so I don’t know why it took you so long in the first place to let me know about your journey.
Your letter of the 24th reached me on the 9th October. On the same day I received one from Fabian. He too had been quiet for some time.
I still can’t understand, though, how after receiving my telegram seeking to know why you were quiet, you could calmly put it aside and write a letter thanking me for the telegram! Surely the telegram indicated that I was worried and anxious.
I have written to Benjie and have asked him to take up this matter of my mail with attorneys and I have told him that if he requires information about the contents of the Minister’s64 notices to me you’ll be able to help him.
I received the watch. Thanks. And I hope you have received the “Book of the Human Body”.
Mrs Marquard is keeping me supplied with plays by modern dramatists. She has also sent me a sizeable amount of sweets and nuts. She calls it “a hoard to draw from”.
Mrs Pullen has written, too. She says she was sorry to read that refugees in Basutoland were all singing my praises as their leader.65 She hopes I’ll denounce them all and tell them I am now “a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ”. I suppose I’ll have to take up ministry after that and be a good little Christian kaffir.66 I don’t think I’ll answer the letter. I’ll hurt her if I do.
Well, October is almost over. September was the longest month I have ever known. I didn’t think it would ever end.
Well, the boys are six now! I hope they understood my messages. I decided to use idiomatic Xhosa to demonstrate to you that if I speak simple Xhosa it is not because I do not know the language well, but purely out of consideration for Joh’burg people! You wouldn’t understand me if I were to employ Course Three Xhosa!
Incidentally, I do not know what message Fabian derived from the quotation from Job I sent him. I meant it as a straightforward quotation. However, if he detected a message in it which he found useful who am I to disillusion him? I haven’t replied to his letter yet. I’ll do so next week I hope.
Well, Cheerio Kid. Love to all.
Your loving husband,
Mangi
P.S. I read about the invitation to the Zambia Independence Celebrations.67 Congrats! M
Robert Sobukwe
to Benjamin Pogrund,
20 October 1964 (Ba2.41)
My dear Benjie,
Thank you indeed for both your telegrams. I needed the assurance about my family and, as a father, I was happy to know you had succeeded in getting birthday cards for my autochthons.
I subsequently received a letter from my wife, dated the 24th September, followed by a telegram. But the letter of the 10th September to which she refers, I have not received.
And I want to take up this matter of my mail with you today with whatever matters may be relevant.
You will no doubt recall that I have been complaining ceaselessly about the (to me) inexplicable delay in my mail, almost from the very moment I got here. I thought I would stick it [out] for a while, believing the arrangements to be temporary in any event. But it has proved not to be. And now that letters from, first my children and then my wife, have for a reason unknown to me been apparently held up the possibilities are, to say the least, disturbing.
Now