David Sibeko

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David Maphgumzana Sibeko (August 26, 1938 in Johannesburg, South Africa – June 12, 1979 in Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania), was known as the "Malcolm X of South Africa" and began his political career as a journalist for the black South African Magazine Drum. During his tenure with that magazine, he became a leading figure within the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (South Africa). During the 1970's he headed the United Nations Observer Mission of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) in New York City and used this position to popularize the PAC particularly among African-Americans. In 1978-1979 Sibeko became the first among equals on a Presidential Leadership Council which assumed the leadership of the PAC, replacing Potlako Leballo. David Sibeko was assassinated in Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania on 12 June 1979.

David Sibeko's contribution to the liberation struggle in South Africa unfortunately is little known. In actuality his influence was pervasive and, some would argue, on par with that of Nelson Mandela. Sibeko adroitly used his position as the head of the PAC Observer Mission at the United Nations as a way to unite diverse sectors of the international black community behind the PAC. Thus he counted among his personal friends and supporters personages as varied as Andrew Young, Stokely Carmichael (later known as Kwame Ture), Julius Nyerere, Louis Farrakhan, and the heads of state of countries such as Haiti (pre-Aristide), to Libya, Egypt, the future Zimbabwe, Ghana, Guinea, and many more that comprised the Organization of African Unity.

A sharp thinker, and, above all, an eminently practical, big-hearted man with an easy laugh, he could be seen coaxing support from a U.S. State Department official one minute, gathering support from the communist Chinese the next, and persuading the Soviet representatives to assist the PAC in some small matter or another after that. One could easily find the same ANC officials that would detract him and the PAC during the day, drinking, eating (he would personally cook for his guests), and laughing at his apartment on West End Avenue in New York City that same evening.