THEAPARTHEIDERA
shown by what they regarded as a concession to white interests in the
Freedom Charter. They wanted a purely African movement, dedicated to
the emancipation of the African population.
An African journalist struck a
popular note when he wrote: "The masses do not hate an abstraction like
'oppression'
or 'capitalism' ....
They make these things concrete and hate
the oppressor-in
South Africa the White man."58 With such forces be-
hind him, Robert Sobukwe emerged as an alternative to the Lutuli-Man-
dela leadership. Sobukwe, a powerful orator, was born in Graaff-Reinet in
the eastern Cape Province in 1924. He was educated at Fort Hare and was a
Bantu language instructor at the University of the Witwatersrand.
He did
not hold the extreme views of some of his followers. Ultimately, according
to Sobukwe, Whites might become genuine Africans; but since they bene-
fited from the existing social order, they could not yet identify with the
African cause.I?
Failing to gain control of the ANC, the Africanists under Sobukwe broke
away in 1959 and founded the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC). On March 21,
196o, upstaging the ANC, they launched a campaign against the pass laws.
Large numbers of Africans assembled at police stations without
passes,