Rest in Peace, Dennis Brutus (1924 - 2009):

Poet Dennis Brutus passed away two days ago at age 85. The South African writer, once a political prisoner jailed at Robben Island alongside Nelson Mandela, dedicated his life and words to battling apartheid in his native country.

Writer Olu Oguibe doesn't mince words about Brutus' legacy:

"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."

In 1964, Brutus was part of the team that persuaded Olympic officials to ban South Africa from competition until apartheid ended nearly three decades later. He also formed the South African Sports Association, a group that offered an alternative to the official (white) athletics group.

Two of Brutus' book were published while he was in jail.

He emigrated to the U.S. in 1971, becoming a college professor and continuing his activism, though throughout his time here he had to fight deportation. He wrote many more books, primarily published by Haymarket Books and most of which were banned in South Africa, though, as the New York Times reports, one slipped through: Thoughts Abroad, published under the pseudonym John Bruin. 

Since then, Brutus has been honored by scads of prizes and awards. Post-apartheid South Africa gave him a lifetime achievement award in arts and culture; it also offered to induct him into the nation's sports hall of fame, but Brutus rejected it on the grounds of it being "incompatible to have those who championed racist sport alongside its genuine victims."

Much of Brutus' latter-day activism focused on climate change. In what may be his last published piece of writing, he wrote an open letter this month about the UN's conference in Copenhagen.

Prayer
By Dennis Brutus

O let me soar on steadfast wing
that those who know me for a pitiable thing
may see me inerasably clear:

grant that their faith that I might hood
some potent thrust to freedom, humanhood
under drab fluff may still be justified.

Protect me from the slightest deviant swoop
to pretty bush or hedgerow lest I droop
ruffled or trifled, snared or power misspent.

Uphold—frustrate me if need be
so that I mould my energy
for that one swift inenarrable soar

hurling myself swordbeaked to lunge
for lodgement in my life’s sun-targe—
a land and people just and free.

July 3, 1966-1968

Comments

[Justin Bigos]

I had the luck to see Brutus read a few times in Pittsburgh. Things suddenly got very serious when he took the stage, as if the poets who read before him were jesters warming up the crowd for the main event. (No dis on the other poets, I just mean he had a real presence, a gravitas as they say.)

[Michelle Wong]

thought you & your readers might be interested in a new documentary, Fair Play, which tells the story of the anti-apartheid movement sports boycotts Brutus played such a key role in. Here’s a trailer:http://activevoice.net/haveyouheard_fairplay.html

[Anna Clark]

I've never heard of that film ... thanks so much for pointing us to it!