Darkest Before the Dawn

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.

• List of IllustrationsPreface: Hearing SobukweAcknowledgementsPermissionsPart I: Introduction‘The Sun Here Is Scorching’: Robert Sobukwe, Kimberley, 1969–1978Part II: Sobukwe’s Speeches, Articles and Court TestimoniesIntroductionChapter 1 Address on Behalf of the Graduating Class at Fort Hare College: ‘Completers’ Social’ Speech by Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, 21 October 1949Chapter 2 Forward to 1958! Editorial by Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, The Africanist, December 1957Chapter 3 The Nature of the Struggle Today: Article by Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe (attributed to Potlako Leballo), The Africanist, December 1957Chapter 4 Future of the Africanist Movement: Questions and Answers by Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, The Africanist, January 1959Chapter 5 Manifesto of the Africanist Movement: Ratified at the PAC Inaugural Convention, Orlando, Johannesburg, 4–6 April 1959Chapter 6 Opening Address: by Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe to the PAC Inaugural Convention, Orlando, Johannesburg, 4–6 April 1959Chapter 7 The State of the Nation: Speech by Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe on ‘National Heroes’ Day’, 2 August 1959Chapter 8 One Central Government in Africa: Draft Article by Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, March 1960Chapter 9 R. vs Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe and Others, April 1960Chapter 10 Robert Sobukwe’s Testimony in R. vs Monyake and Others, September 1960Part III: InterviewsChapter 11 ‘We Africanists’: Gail Gerhart Interviews Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, 1970Chapter 12 ‘He Was the Intellectual, Completely’: Derek Hook Interviews Joe Thloloe, 2014Part IV: ConclusionThe Afterlife of Robert Mangaliso SobukweIndex

This volume is a significant step towards giving voice and recognition to Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe’s towering contribution to this country’s public life, history, and memory. Through his writings, testimonies and correspondence, his humanity, intelligence, and eloquence shine through … Darkest before Dawn is a tremendous contribution to our history, politics and public memory. – Bongani Ngqulunga, Professor, Department of Politics, University of Johannesburg and author of The Man Who Founded the ANC: A Biography of Pixley ka Isaka Seme