In a letter of condolence written on 5 August 1974 to Nell Marquard, a friend with whom he had been corresponding since his time on Robben Island, Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe made a telling observation:

Sobukwe, who clearly knew about suffering, loneliness and the impossibility of ever fully communicating one's pain to another, was writing just after the death of Nell's husband, the noted Cape liberal, author and historian, Leo Marquard. Given that Leo was a prominent liberal, and that white liberals had not always been friendly to the aims and agendas of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) – the organisation that Sobukwe led from 1959 until his arrest in 1960 – one might have expected coolness from Sobukwe. Not at all. Sobukwe, as always, was gracious:

Touching as this acknowledgement of his contribution would have been for Marquard, the real poignancy of Sobukwe's letter comes a little further on, when he starts speaking of the myriad difficulties he has faced since leaving Robben Island.

Despite the fact that he makes light of it, one senses in Sobukwe's letter that the constant surveillance and harassment of the Security Police was taking its toll. Behind the ironic salute to the astuteness of the police, there is also a disturbing foreshadowing.