Out of Africa
Portrayal | A Glimpse of
South Africa
Literary World
Ten Famous Authors
For centuries authors have been among the world’s most important people, helping chronicle history and keep us entertained with one of the earliest forms of storytelling. Whether they’re known for fiction, non-fiction, poetry or even technical writing, famous South African authors have kept that tradition alive by writing renowned works that have been praised around the world. Five are listed on this web page,
Addo Elephant National Park, Eastern Cape, South Africa (8 Oct 2014)
Mzwakhe Mbuli – Poet & Singer
In the 1980s Mbuli was repeatedly detained by the authorities and denied a passport to travel while playing a leading role in the Cultural activities of the United Democratic Front. His international career began in 1990 in Berlin, Germany when he shared the stage with Youssou N’dour, Miriam Makeba and Thomas Mapfumo. He performed at the funeral of Chris Hani, and at the presidential inauguration of Nelson Mandela. Click to View.
Merchant Wares. City Centre, Cape Town,South Africa (8 Oct 2014)
Table Mountain National Park, Western Cape, South Africa (2013)
Breyten Breytenbach – Novelist, essayist, poet
He left South Africa for Paris in the early 1960s. When he married a French woman of Vietnamese ancestry he was not allowed to return On an illegal trip to South Africa in 1975 he was arrested and sentenced to seven years of imprisonment for high treason: his work The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist describes aspects of his imprisonment. Click to View.
Security Guard. Green Point Stadium, Green Point, Cape Town, South Africa (10 Jan 2015)
Antjie Krog – Teacher/Lecturer
Antjie was born into an Afrikaner family of writers in Kroonstad, Orange Free State, South Africa. In 1970, at the height of John Vorster’s apartheid years, she penned an anti-apartheid poem for her school magazine: Translation – Give me a land where black and white hand in hand, Can bring peace and love to my beautiful land. This scandalised her conservative Afrikaans-speaking community and brought the attention of the national media to her parents’ doorstep. Highly education, and with a teaching diploma from the University of South Africa (UNISA) she would lecture at a segregated teacher’s training college for black South Africans. Click to View.
Musicians
Miriam Makeba, Brenda Fassie, Hugh Masekela, Lucky Dube, Lira, Black Coffee, YoungstaCPT, Alice Phoebe Lou, Dope Saint Jude, and Shekhinah. Click to View.
Music Composers
Neo Muyanga, Clare Loveday, Andile Khumalo, Amy Crankshaw, and Cara Stacey. Click to View.
Dancers & Choreographers
Motsi Mabuse, Otlile “Oti” Mabuse (Otli and Motsi Mabuse are siblings), Lindi Mlaba, Teboho ‘Tebza’ Diphehlo, Lulu Mlangeni, Kitty Phetla, Dada Masilo, and Gregory Vuyani Maqoma. Click to View.
Addo Elephant National Park, Eastern Cape, South Africa (8 Oct 2014)
Keorapetse William Kgositsile – Poet Laureate
Kgositsile, also known as “Bra Willie”, is a South African poet and political activist. An influential member of the African National Congress in the 1960s and 1970s, he was inaugurated as South Africa’s National Poet Laureate in 2006. He was one of the first to bridge the gap between African poetry and Black poetry in the United States, and thus one of the first and most significant poets in the Pan-African movement. Click to View.
V&A Waterfront, Cape Town, South Africa (2013)
Greepoint Stadium grounds, Cape Town, South Africa (10 Jan 2015)
V&A Waterfront, Cape Town, South Africa (2013)
David Wright – Poet & Freelance Writer
Wright was born in Johannesburg, South Africa of normal hearing. When he was 7 years old he contracted scarlet fever and was deafened as a result of the disease. He emigrated to England at the age of 14, and enrolled in the Northampton School for the Deaf. His autobiography, Deafness: A Personal Account (1969), is often used to give hearing people an insight into an experience they might not easily imagine. Click to View.
African National Congress Celebration, Green Point Stadium (10 Jan 2015)