November 28, 2014 would have marked the 90th birthday of the late poet and political activist, Dennis Brutus. A long-time resident of the Eastern Cape in his early life, Brutus paid a number of more recent visits to Grahamstown, both as a guest of Wordfest and to receive an honorary doctorate from Rhodes University in 2009.
November 28, 2014 would have marked the 90th birthday of the late poet and political activist, Dennis Brutus. A long-time resident of the Eastern Cape in his early life, Brutus paid a number of more recent visits to Grahamstown, both as a guest of Wordfest and to receive an honorary doctorate from Rhodes University in 2009.
Those who had the privilege of meeting him on these visits will remember him fondly. Brutus was born in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1924. Soon after his birth, his family moved to South Africa, where they settled in the Eastern Cape. Here they moved between towns, including Grahamstown, before eventually settling in Port Elizabeth.
Brutus even had a short stint at St Mary’s School in (then) Raglan Road. After finishing high school in Port Elizabeth he attended Fort Hare University where he obtained a BA degree and teachers diploma. After this, he taught at schools in Port Elizabeth.
A lifelong activist and fierce opponent of apartheid, Brutus achieved prominence when he spoke out against the refusal of the government to allow black sportsmen and women to represent South Africa internationally. As founding chairman of the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee (Sanroc), he was instrumental in securing South African's expulsion from the Olympics and other international team events.
His activities resulted in his being banned by the South African government and prohibited from teaching, being published or even quoted. In 1963, after a failed attempt to leave South Africa illegally, he was sentenced to 18 months hard labour on Robben Island, serving in the same section as Nelson Mandela.
After his release in 1965, he was placed under house arrest until 1966 when he was granted an exit permit to leave South Africa. He and his family moved to Britain where he worked for the World Campaign for the Release of Political Prisoners and the International Defense and Aid Fund.
In 1970, he moved to the United States and taught at several universities including Denver, Northwestern and Pittsburgh. After 1991, he was a regular visitor to South Africa, holding appointments at Fort Hare University and the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Until his death in 2009, Brutus remained a fearless fighter against injustice and inequality, particularly concerning world poverty, third world debt and globalisation.
A world-renowned poet, Brutus published several volumes including Sirens, Knuckles, Boots (1963), Letters to Martha (1968), Thoughts Abroad (1970), Poems from Algiers (1970), A Simple Lust (1973), China Poems (1975), Strains (1975), Stubborn Hope (1978), Salutes and Censures (1984), Airs and Tributes (1989), Still the Sirens (1993), Remembering Soweto 1976 (2004), Leafdrift (2005), Poetry and Protest (2006) – his only collection to be published in South Africa – and a posthumous collection Poetry and Human Rights: Poems (2010).
His poems as well as his many essays and articles were published in a wide range of books, journals and newspapers. Brutus received several literary and humanitarian awards including the Langston Hughes Award in1986, the first annual Paul Robeson Award in 1989 and the Fonlon-Nichols Award in 2005, in addition to several honorary doctorates.
Through his early poetry, Brutus exposed the inner workings of apartheid to the international community. His later poems focused more on global interests.
On Nelson Mandela’s release from prison in 1990, Brutus wrote the following stirring poem: February 1990 Yes, Mandela – some of us admit embarrassedly we wept to see you step free so erectly, so elegantly shrug off the prisoned years a blanket cobwebbed of pain and grime: behind: the island's sea sand, harsh, white and treacherous ahead: jagged rocks and krantzes bladed crevices of racism and deceit.
In the salt island air you swung your hammer, grimly stoic facing the dim path of interminable years.
Now, vision blurred with tears we see you step out to our salutes bearing our burden of hopes and fears and impress your radiance on the grey morning air. Dennis Brutus (From: Still the Sirens, 1993)
