Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe OMSG (5 December 1924 – 27 February 1978) was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and founding member of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), serving as the first president of the organization.

[1] In March 1960, Sobukwe organized and launched a non-violent protest campaign against pass laws, for which he was sentenced to three years in prison on grounds of incitement.

[2] While his father who was from Lesotho worked as a general store clerk and part-time woodcutter, Sobukwe's Xhosa mother served as a domestic worker in white homes.

[4] In 1947, Sobukwe enrolled at the South African Native College at Fort Hare, the premier undergraduate institution for black students of his time.

In 1950, Sobukwe was appointed as a teacher at a high school in Standerton, a position he lost when he spoke out in favour of the Defiance Campaign in 1952; he was, however, later reinstated.

[6][7] During his time in Johannesburg he became editor of The Africanist newspaper and soon began to criticise the ANC for allowing itself to be dominated by sympathizers of the Progressive Party, which he termed "liberal-left-multi-racialists".

[1]: 421 Sobukwe became known as the Professor or simply "Prof" to his close comrades and followers, a testament to his educational achievements and powers of speech and persuasion.

As the end of Sobukwe's three-year sentence approached, the National Party parliament passed the General Law Amendment Act, which introduced a clause allowing for political dissidents to be indefinitely detained.

[21] At Robben Island, Sobukwe was in company of other revolutionaries in liberation struggle such as Nelson Mandela, Johnson Mlambo, and John Nyathi Pokela, among many others.

[22]Sobukwe was kept in solitary confinement but enjoyed a unique prisoner-plus status; he was permitted certain privileges including books, magazines, newspapers, civilian clothing, etc.

[4] He lived in a separate area on the island and was strictly prohibited from contact with other prisoners, though Sobukwe was able to communicate sporadically through visual signals while outside for exercise.

[4] It is speculated that Sobukwe was subjected to this special treatment because the South African government had profiled him as a greater troublemaker than the regular ANC prisoners.

[25] In early 1977, Sobukwe fell ill and applied for permission to receive medical treatment; his request was denied indefinitely until the intervention of his friend Benjamin Pogrund.

His vision of a society dedicated to individual rights, irrespective of race or ethnicity, is shared by many of his contemporaries such as in elements of the ANC and Pan-Africanists.

[30] Leballo's revolutionary rhetoric inspired the planning of violent operations, ultimately leading to the public arrest of 3,246 PAC and Poqo members.