However, it often happens that our friends have nothing but good wishes to give us in return. The formula is “same to you”, said indifferently or warmly, depending on our feelings toward our well-wishers. There are characters at Graaff-Reinet, however, who are known to hate having their good-wishes reciprocated, preferring a solid, tangible token of good-will. They are quick to follow their “happy Christmas” with “en moet my nie ‘seventy-you’ gee nie!”83 – in the idiom of our location.
I was interested also in your account of the lecture on Galileo. I don’t know what to think of the man. I happened to read, by accident really, Arthur Koestler’s The Sleepwalkers, in which he traces the history of astronomy. For some reason or another he feels called upon to cut Galileo down to size and to accord pre-eminence to his countryman, George Keppler.84 Well, if there’s one thing Koestler can do it is debunking theories and denigrating characters. He makes Galileo appear an arrogant, petulant, perfidious liar towards whom the Church showed unusual tolerance. He has marshalled his facts skilfully, but, as I say, he is arguing a case and has been too harsh on Galileo. But it is amazing how steadfastly scientists refused to make the assumptions that their observations should have led them to make, how they skirted the truth for centuries, making momentous discoveries and yet not realizing that they had. It’s a fascinating story of how in his laborious serpentine climb man often goes off at a tangent, confidently: ends up in a cul-de-sac and has to retrace his steps!
Yes, a lot is happening on the world scene. I am happy about the outcome of the American elections because, whatever shady deals mar his past, [President Lyndon] Johnson, I believe, wants to and can fire the imagination of American youth. And I have a soft spot for Americans. Perhaps because they are so desperately anxious to be loved or because they are so vulnerable. There is one respect in which they resemble the Communists whom they loathe so much. In the days of Lenin, the Communists seemed to enjoy announcing their failures from the rooftops and going back to the job with the renewed vigour of those who have just returned from the confessional. The Americans, too, are extremely self-critical – a sign of strength.
I do not know the history of the crisis in South Vietnam, unfortunately. But I do believe that the Americans are allowing themselves to be blackmailed unnecessarily. There is not a single country in Africa, Asia or Latin America that would voluntarily go Communist. Of that I am certain. They’ll all declare themselves socialists, yes, but it will be their brand of socialism. If America were to take up the attitude and let it be known, that she will assist to the best of her ability where her assistance is required, but that she will withdraw willingly where is not wanted, there would be no demonstrations, anywhere, against American embassies. Of course it is an unavoidable risk in democracies that some obscure paper will publish some uncomplimentary matter on some Asian or African country – something that State-controlled Communist papers can NEVER do – and that paper’s sentiments are taken as representative of the country as a whole.
In Europe, the situation is most intriguing. Professor Beloff85 was of opinion that the Socialist parties of Europe would regard a Labour victory in Britain as a sign of a change in the international climate. Herr Willy Brandt, Signor Nenni and M. Gaston Defferre of Germany, Italy and France, respectively,86 are going to be watched very closely in the coming months because socialist victories in these countries will give a fillip to the explosive though latent idea of a Socialist United States of Europe. What a mighty power that would be! And who knows, if liberalization were to continue behind the Iron Curtain, whether the Soviet Union and its satellites were not to be drawn into such a Union.
Strange as it may seem, I have no fear of a world conflagration. I have a strong consciousness of God’s active intervention in the affairs of the world. We are moving towards God’s solution.
I wish you and your family a God-blessed and memorable Christmas and New Year.
Yours very sincerely,
RM Sobukwe
In my previous letter, I spoke of bringing the roof down. As no applause was provided for it would have been more correct, perhaps, to have the roof blown off or the walls collapsing as they did in Jericho! RMS
Robert Sobukwe
to Benjamin Pogrund,
7 December 1964 (Ba2.48)
Hello Benjie!
You will probably have learnt by now that I have not yet written to Mr. Zackon. It isn’t because I have misplaced your letter which, in the light of recent experiences, is likely to be your first thought. The reason, really, is that as my wife will soon be coming down and there is a strong probability that Dr. Ribeiro87 will be joining her, I thought I would discuss the matter with them and see if the prayer or plea, whatever the thing is called, cannot be broadened. I felt that if they were to see Mr. Zackon themselves, then a lot of the preliminary ground can be prepared at no unnecessary cost.
I am glad you have got over your illness. By a strange coincidence Mr. and Mrs. Mittag were down with jaundice at about the same time. Fortunately, they too have recovered and have already been on picnic out in the Kalahari from whence they sent me some succulents and a lovely plant-pot, the work of the potter in Jeremiah!88 When I wrote to them, the plants and the pot had not arrived yet and I am afraid I may not be able to write to them again this year. Will you please, if you do write to them sooner than that, advise them that I have received the stuff and will write to thank them as soon as the queue clears.
A Mrs. Schonfield in Britain has sent me T.H. Green’s Political Obligations.89 And that is all in the line of Social Philosophy that has arrived. But don’t worry, Benjie. The three books I have are enough for a pass: only the subject intrigues me and I feel I want to know as much about it as it is possible to know.
With regard to novels do you think that in the New Year it would be possible for you to get me books by the following authors:
1.C.P. Snow – I haven’t read any of his works.
2.J.B. Priestley – have read “Let the People Sing” and “Midnight on the Desert”.
3.[Antoine de] St-Exupery – Have read his Flight to Arras.
4.Goethe – Haven’t read anything by him.
5.Balzac – Suspect his works will be banned, tho.
Am quite happy with [Harold] Wilson at the head of affairs in Britain and Johnson as boss in America. They’ll complement each other with Wilson providing the ideas, the well-thought-out ideas of a critical, limpid intelligence and Johnson the persuasive skill that is his trade mark. Both have been shaped by [John F.] Kennedy in some way. Wilson hopes to provide the youthful inspiration and vision that Kennedy evoked. And he can: in Britain; where he will not be expected to be a romantic and athletic idol of teenagers. It is the intellectuals of Britain now who will have their chance as the American ones had under Kennedy.
Johnson, of course, has inherited Kennedy’s mantle and programme. But he wants to be remembered as a great president in his own right. America has the resources to banish poverty completely from the States. And Johnson is going to strain every nerve to do it. He is also going to do everything in his power to implement the Civil Rights Act. In his domestic policy, he is going to be successful, I think. The weak spot in his foreign policy is the hostility towards Communist China which he has inherited. America has no intellectual case against Communist China. She is merely prejudiced. Nobody blames her for being prejudiced against China. She may even hate her if she feels like it. But it is a reflection on U.N.O. if China can be kept out simply because America does not like her policy. It tends to suggest that U.N.O. is America’s club to which only those can belong who have America’s blessing. And yet she could have China admitted to U.N.O. without in the least compromising her position.90
I have just laid hands on the “Reader’s