Darkest Before the Dawn: Writings, Testimonies and Correspondence from the Life of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe

A collection of Robert Sobukwe’s political writings, speeches and court testimonies

There are several accounts of Robert Sobukwe’s courageous role in contesting South Africa’s system of apartheid and of his incarceration on Robben Island after the Anti-Pass Campaign that led to the tragic events of Sharpeville in March 1960. Far less attention has been paid to the years the leader of the Pan-Africanist Congress spent in Kimberley, between 1969-1978, after his release from the Island. Darkest Before Dawn, the follow-up to Lie on Your Wounds: The Prison Correspondence of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, captures the story of the post-prison years of Sobukwe’s life.

This latest compilation complete with a biographical narrative by the editors and enriched with images from Sobukwe’s life in this period of his life demonstrates the many challenges Sobukwe faced as well as his continued political resolve to fight for an end to apartheid. This is captured in the many meetings he had in spite of banning orders and letters he exchanged with friends and admirers, including the celebrated novelist Bessie Head whose letters to Sobukwe are published here for the first time. Sobukwe continued to meet political allies, such as Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko, he pursued a legal career and played host to international visitors. The portrait of Sobukwe that emerges is that of a highly ethical man, a figure of dignity and fortitude, and a wise elder whose commitment to the people of Africa and to the vision of Pan-Africanism who remained undeterred, despite his being forced to live, in his final years, under near impossible conditions.

To do justice to Sobukwe’s legacy, his intellectual contribution and his unfailing desire to pursue liberation for the African people, we need to view his biography against the backdrop of his words. Darkest Before Dawn includes a definitive collection of his political writings, speeches, unpublished court testimonies, interviews with Gail Gerhart and Joe Thloloe, and expansive annotations by the compilers. The book ends with a reflective essay which highlights the ongoing pertinence of Sobukwe’s legacy.

Derek Hook (Author)
Derek Hook is a professor in Psychology and a clinical supervisor at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, USA and an extraordinary professor of Psychology at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. He is one of the editors of the Palgrave Lacan Series and also of the four-volume Reading Lacan’s Écrits (2018). Along with Sheldon George he edited the collection Lacan on Race (2021), and along with Leswin Laubscher and Miraj Desai he edited Fanon, Phenomenology and Psychology (2022). He is also the editor of a first volume of Sobukwe letters, Lie on Your Wounds: The prison correspondence of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe (2019).

Leswin Laubscher (Author)
Leswin Laubscher is an associate professor in the Clinical Psychology department at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, USA. He is currently an extraordinary professor at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. Amongst others he is the co-editor of Fanon, Phenomenology and Psychology (2022).

Robert Sobukwe (Author)
Robert Sobukwe founded the Pan Africanist Congress in 1959 and was its president. He was imprisoned on Robben Island from 1960-1969, mostly in solitary confinement, and was considered such a threat by the government that its parliament enacted the ’Sobukwe clause’, which authorised the arbitrary extension of his imprisonment. After his release in 1969, he lived in Kimberley with family under house arrest. He died in 1978 from lung cancer.