15David Du Bois (1925–2005) was the director of the United States Information Service (USIS) in Johannesburg. He was known to Sobukwe through Potlako Leballo, who had found employment at the Johannesburg office of the USIS.
16Keep well!
17Sobukwe’s wording is a little confusing here. He is conveying his intent not to accept visitors unless they are accompanied by his wife, or unless his wife has informed him of who they are and given him advance warning.
18Psalm 126: 6.
19Clarence Mlamli Makwetu (1928–2016), who was secretary of the PAC in Langa, Cape Town, before the PAC was banned. He was imprisoned on Robben Island from 1963 to 1968 in the same jail as Nelson Mandela and other ANC members. When the PAC was unbanned in 1990, he became its president.
20Veronica’s older sister.
21The Bel Air and the Biscayne were contemporary models of Chevrolet motor cars.
22Robert Sobukwe’s brother.
23The wife of Sobukwe’s brother Ernest.
24Veronica’s younger sister.
25The tea manufacturer.
1963
One of the few surviving pictures of Robert Sobukwe on Robben Island. The photograph was taken in 1965, recalls Benjamin Pogrund, as evidence of Sobukwe’s good health.
Robert Sobukwe,
Pretoria Prison,
to Veronica Sobukwe,
26 March 1963 (Bc2)
Hello Darling,
Since my future is still so uncertain, I thought I should take this opportunity to tell you just how much your courage and love have meant to me during all these years of my imprisonment. Human nature is a queer thing, Darling. It is quite possible that after a time I may forget what you suffered on my behalf. That is why I want you to have this written testimony from me so that we both of us can go back to it in future. I just wish to say, Child, that you have been a magnificent wife and mother. You have been everything I could have wished my wife to be. And I mean that, Little Woman. And the children, too, will agree with me!
I received a letter from Buti.1 He didn’t have much to say except to express the hope that we will soon meet. By the way is J.D.2 back yet or does he no longer intend to return to Joh’burg?
Then there is the question of my wood & coal business in Standerton. Segegede and I went 50-50 and money can be withdrawn from the bank only if the cheque bears the signatures of both of us. We placed some amount in fixed deposit, renewable every year in July. This was [illegible].
Please tell Stan that Emmanuel’s wife has written to say she won’t be coming to see him any further. She is employed and finds it impossible to come during the week. Will he please arrange that somebody else visit the boy? We would be extremely pleased if Z.B.3 could do so even if it is just once. And of course Perry can do so – as a prospective sister-in-law.
I shall be getting the next Reader’s Digest early next month. You can write immediately to the Head Office in Cape Town to tell them to send the May Issue to 684 Mofolo and all the other issues from then on. You can forward them from Joh’burg to wherever I am or we can make further arrangements later. But please inform them, Sweet, of the change of address. It requires six weeks advance notice.
You can inform Benjie [Pogrund] too, to make arrangements for the May issue and subsequent issues of the English Digest to be mailed to Mofolo. I have not yet received the London Harper’s magazine.
If Mercy4 wishes to write please let her do so and if she can accompany you on your next visit let her do so. I would like to see her.
Well, Kid, give my love and greetings to the boys. If you do write to Mili and Dini tell them I shall reply to their letters. In the meantime let them study and behave as my children should!!
I’ll [illegible]
Robert Sobukwe,
Robben Island,
to Veronica Sobukwe,
22 May 1963 (Bc3)
Darling,
I thought I would wait until I received one from you, informing me about your journey back. But I remembered that your hands are full and so is your heart.
I am still well though a bit lonely. I have derived great comfort and strength from Dr Peale’s book5 as well as from your visit. Your courage is magnificent, Little Woman. I thank God for a number of things and one of them, an important one for our earthly lives, is that he gave me you for a wife. I mean it. In one of his books, Robert Louis Stevenson writes of his wife that “She was as true to me as truest steel.”6 That is what I would say about you, too. Keep your chin up, Little Girl, and cling fast to your faith.
Thanks for the photos. I got them subsequently. How fine the children look! God and you have looked after them better than I could ever have done. I loved Dedani’s smile. It is so open and fresh! Dali is either shy or extremely mischievous. In all the photos he is biting his lip. Mili and Dini have grown fast indeed.
I have not heard from Fabian7 yet nor has the money come. I am hoping to get my lectures as soon as possible so that I can have something to tie me down to a fixed programme.
I had hoped to ask Dennis8 to pay my fees. But I read recently that he had been sentenced to three years for continuing the activities of PAC. He was sentenced together with Mpumelelo [Mhlalisi], the boy who played with Dini when you visited Den[nis]. There were two others. They all got three years. I hope to write to his wife soon, to console her.
But this means that I shall have to depend on you then for the fees. I don’t know what they will be, but I have a feeling that with books and all it won’t work out at less than R80 (£40) a year. A very heavy bit, you will agree.
What papers did you arrange for and for how long? I received a letter from Prof Wellington9 in which he stated a desire to pay me a visit. I asked him to send me his two volumes on Geography.
The cable from Cannon Collins10 was forwarded to me from Pretoria. But I have not received the money. I do not know where they sent it. If you get it you will decide what to do with it.
By the way, you did not pack my black shoes, Darling. What you did pack were my slippers – black. And as you know this pair of brown shoes I have here needs immediate repair.
I wrote to Buti but I have not got his reply yet. I know they are worried. I told him in my letter that you would pass Graaff-Reinet if the detour was not too much, as the people who were driving you had to get back to work the following day and so did you.
Mercy11 wrote, too, and her letter was re-directed from Pretoria. She commented on the health and activity of the twins.
Cheerio, darling. Love to the kids, Mama and friends.
Your loving husband,
Mangi
Robert Sobukwe
to Nell Marquard,
2 July 1963 (Bd2.10)
Dear Mrs Marquard,12
I received your letter on the 30th June and, as always, enjoyed it immensely. I am glad to know that Mr Marquard’s condition has improved. Asthma can be very nasty and [illegible] customer.