Sonny Venkatrathnam

Sonny Venkatrathnam
Born(1935-07-27)27 July 1935
Durban, Natal
Died15 March 2019(2019-03-15) (aged 83)
Durban, Natal
OccupationHuman rights activist

Sonny Venkatrathnam (27 July 1935 – 15 March 2019) was a South African anti-apartheid activist and human rights activist who was imprisoned in the Robben Island Maximum Security Prison along with other anti-apartheid activists including Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, and Mac Maharaj.[1] He was most famously known for smuggling an edition of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare into the prison. The book was shared with many of the high-profile prisoners in the prison and was called the Robben Island Bible.[2]

  1. ^ "Tributes pour in for former Robben Island prisoner Sonny Venkatrathnam". www.iol.co.za. Archived from the original on 18 September 2021. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).