Dennis Brutus
Encyclopedia
Dennis Vincent Brutus was a South African activist, educator, journalist and poet best known for his campaign to have apartheid South Africa banned from the Olympic Games
.
, Zimbabwe
(then Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia
) to South African parents, Brutus was of African, French and Italian ancestry. His parents moved back home to Port Elizabeth when he was 4, and young Brutus was classified under South Africa
’s apartheid racial code as "colored." Brutus was a graduate of the University of Fort Hare
and the University of the Witwatersrand
, and he served on the faculty of the University of Denver
, Northwestern University
and University of Pittsburgh
; he was a Professor Emeritus from the last institution. In 2008, Brutus was awarded the Lifetime Honourary Award by the South African Department of Arts and Culture for his lifelong dedication to African and world poetry and literary arts
Although not an accomplished athlete in his own right, he was motivated by the unfairness of selections for athletic teams.He joined the Anti-Coloured Affairs Department organisation (Anti-CAD), a Trotskyist group that organised against the Coloured Affairs Department which was an attempt by the government to institutionalise divisions between blacks
and coloureds.
, where Portuguese secret police arrested him and returned him to South Africa. There, while trying to escape, he was shot in the back at point-blank range. After only partly recovering from the wound, Brutus was sent Robben Island
... for 16 months, five in solitary." He was in the cell next to Nelson Mandela
's. Brutus was in prison when news of the country's suspension from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, for which he had campaigned, broke.
Brutus was forbidden to teach, write and publish in South Africa. His first collection of poetry, Sirens, Knuckles and Boots, was published in Nigeria
while he was in prison. The book received the Mbari Poetry Prize, awarded to a black poet of distinction, but Brutus turned it down on the grounds of its racial exclusivity. He was the author of 14 books.
as a political refugee, after a protracted legal struggle. He continued to participate in protests against the apartheid government while teaching in the United States. He was "unbanned" by the South African government in 1990.
where he often contributed to the annual Poetry Africa
Festival hosted by the University and supported activism against neo-liberal policies in contemporary South Africa through working with NGOs. In December 2007, Brutus was to be inducted into the South African Sports Hall of Fame. At the induction ceremony, Brutus publicly turned down his nomination, stating, "It is incompatible to have those who championed racist sport alongside its genuine victims. It’s time—indeed long past time—for sports truth, apologies and reconciliation."
According to fellow writer Olu Oguibe
, interim Director of the Institute for African American Studies at the University of Connecticut
, "Brutus was arguably Africa's greatest and most influential modern poet after Leopold Sedar Senghor
and Christopher Okigbo
, certainly the most widely-read, and no doubt among the world's finest poets of all time. More than that, he was a fearless campaigner for justice, a relentless organizer, an incorrigible romantic, and a great humanist and teacher."
Brutus died of prostate cancer
on 26 December 2009, at his home in Cape Town, South Africa. He is survived by his wife, the former May Jaggers; two sisters; eight children including son Anthony; nine grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
Obituaries
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
.
Life and work
Born in HarareHarare
Harare before 1982 known as Salisbury) is the largest city and capital of Zimbabwe. It has an estimated population of 1,600,000, with 2,800,000 in its metropolitan area . Administratively, Harare is an independent city equivalent to a province. It is Zimbabwe's largest city and its...
, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
(then Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia was the name of the British colony situated north of the Limpopo River and the Union of South Africa. From its independence in 1965 until its extinction in 1980, it was known as Rhodesia...
) to South African parents, Brutus was of African, French and Italian ancestry. His parents moved back home to Port Elizabeth when he was 4, and young Brutus was classified under South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
’s apartheid racial code as "colored." Brutus was a graduate of the University of Fort Hare
University of Fort Hare
The University of Fort Hare is a public university in Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa. It was a key institution in higher education for black Africans from 1916 to 1959. It offered a Western-style, academically excellent education to students from across sub-Saharan Africa, creating a black...
and the University of the Witwatersrand
University of the Witwatersrand
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg is a South African university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University...
, and he served on the faculty of the University of Denver
University of Denver
The University of Denver is currently ranked 82nd among all public and private "National Universities" by U.S. News & World Report in the 2012 rankings....
, Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
and University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
; he was a Professor Emeritus from the last institution. In 2008, Brutus was awarded the Lifetime Honourary Award by the South African Department of Arts and Culture for his lifelong dedication to African and world poetry and literary arts
Activist
Brutus was an activist against the apartheid government of South Africa in the 1960s. He learned politics in the Trotskyist movement of the Eastern Cape.Although not an accomplished athlete in his own right, he was motivated by the unfairness of selections for athletic teams.He joined the Anti-Coloured Affairs Department organisation (Anti-CAD), a Trotskyist group that organised against the Coloured Affairs Department which was an attempt by the government to institutionalise divisions between blacks
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
and coloureds.
Arrest and jail
Brutus was arrested in 1960 for breaking the terms of his "banning," which were he could not meet with more than two people outside his family, and convicted to 18 months in jail. However, he "jumped bail and fled to MozambiqueMozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
, where Portuguese secret police arrested him and returned him to South Africa. There, while trying to escape, he was shot in the back at point-blank range. After only partly recovering from the wound, Brutus was sent Robben Island
Robben Island
Robben Island is an island in Table Bay, 6.9 km west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, Cape Town, South Africa. The name is Dutch for "seal island". Robben Island is roughly oval in shape, 3.3 km long north-south, and 1.9 km wide, with an area of 5.07 km². It is flat and only a...
... for 16 months, five in solitary." He was in the cell next to Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
's. Brutus was in prison when news of the country's suspension from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, for which he had campaigned, broke.
Brutus was forbidden to teach, write and publish in South Africa. His first collection of poetry, Sirens, Knuckles and Boots, was published in Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
while he was in prison. The book received the Mbari Poetry Prize, awarded to a black poet of distinction, but Brutus turned it down on the grounds of its racial exclusivity. He was the author of 14 books.
Release from jail
After he was released, Brutus fled South Africa. He spent time in Britain, and in 1983, he won the right to stay in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
as a political refugee, after a protracted legal struggle. He continued to participate in protests against the apartheid government while teaching in the United States. He was "unbanned" by the South African government in 1990.
Return to South Africa, poetry and activism
He returned to South Africa and was based at the University of KwaZulu-NatalUniversity of KwaZulu-Natal
The University of KwaZulu-Natal or UKZN is a university with five campuses all located in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. It was formed on 1 January 2004 after the merger between the University of Natal and the University of Durban-Westville.-History:-University of...
where he often contributed to the annual Poetry Africa
Poetry Africa
Poetry Africa is an international poetry festival held annually in Durban, South Africa.More than twenty poets, predominantly from South Africa and elsewhere on the African continent, participate in the 7–10 day Poetry Africa, an international poetry festival that is based mostly in Durban, South...
Festival hosted by the University and supported activism against neo-liberal policies in contemporary South Africa through working with NGOs. In December 2007, Brutus was to be inducted into the South African Sports Hall of Fame. At the induction ceremony, Brutus publicly turned down his nomination, stating, "It is incompatible to have those who championed racist sport alongside its genuine victims. It’s time—indeed long past time—for sports truth, apologies and reconciliation."
According to fellow writer Olu Oguibe
Olu Oguibe
Olu Oguibe is an artist and public intellectual. Professor of Art and African-American Studies and interim Director of the Institute for African American Studies at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, Oguibe is a senior fellow of the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at the New School, New...
, interim Director of the Institute for African American Studies at the University of Connecticut
University of Connecticut
The admission rate to the University of Connecticut is about 50% and has been steadily decreasing, with about 28,000 prospective students applying for admission to the freshman class in recent years. Approximately 40,000 prospective students tour the main campus in Storrs annually...
, "Brutus was arguably Africa's greatest and most influential modern poet after Leopold Sedar Senghor
Léopold Sédar Senghor
Léopold Sédar Senghor was a Senegalese poet, politician, and cultural theorist who for two decades served as the first president of Senegal . Senghor was the first African elected as a member of the Académie française. Before independence, he founded the political party called the Senegalese...
and Christopher Okigbo
Christopher Okigbo
Christopher Ifekandu Okigbo was a Nigerian poet, who died fighting for the independence of Biafra. He is today widely acknowledged as the outstanding postcolonial English-language African poet and one of the major modernist writers of the twentieth century.-Early life:Okigbo was born on August...
, certainly the most widely-read, and no doubt among the world's finest poets of all time. More than that, he was a fearless campaigner for justice, a relentless organizer, an incorrigible romantic, and a great humanist and teacher."
Brutus died of prostate cancer
Prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly...
on 26 December 2009, at his home in Cape Town, South Africa. He is survived by his wife, the former May Jaggers; two sisters; eight children including son Anthony; nine grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
Published collections
- Sirens Knuckles and Boots (Mbari Productions, 1963).
- Letters to Martha and Other Poems from a South African Prison (Heinemann, 1968).
- Poems from Algiers(African and Afro-American Studies and Research Institute, 1970).
- A Simple Lust (Heinemann, 1973).
- China Poems (African and Afro-American studies and Research Centre, 1975).
- Stubborn Hope (Three Continents Press/Heinemann, 1978).
- Salutes and Censures (Fourth Dimension, 1982).
- Airs & Tributes (Whirlwind Press, 1989).
- Still the Sirens (Pennywhistle Press, 1993).
- Remembering Soweto, ed. Lamont B. Steptoe (Whirlwind Press, 2004).
- Leafdrift, ed. Lamont B. Steptoe (Whirlwind Press, 2005).
- Poetry and Protest: A Dennis Brutus Reader (Haymarket Books, 2006).
External links
- Dennis Brutus Papers, 1960–1984, Northwestern University Archives, Evanston, Illinois
- "Dennis Brutus reads from his work" for the WGBH series, Ten O'clock News
- African Activist Archive: online materials on Dennis Brutus
Obituaries
- Dennis Brutus 1924 — 2009 This "cyber-tombeauTombeauA tombeau is a musical composition commemorating the death of a notable individual. The term derives from the French word for "tomb" or "tombstone". The vast majority of tombeaux date from the 17th century and were composed for lute or other plucked string instruments...
" at Silliman's Blog by poet Ron SillimanRon SillimanRon Silliman is an American poet. He has written and edited over 30 books, and has had his poetry and criticism translated into 12 languages. He is often associated with language poetry. Between 1979 and 2004, Silliman wrote a single poem, The Alphabet...
includes comments, tributes, and links - Dennis Brutus (1924-2009): South African Poet and Activist Dies in Cape Town - video by Democracy Now!Democracy Now!Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...