South African activist and poet Dennis Brutus dies at 85

[Ken Burch]

Source: Agence France-Presse

JOHANNESBURG — South African poet and anti-apartheid activist Dennis Brutus, who campaigned successfully for an Olympic ban on the white-rule regime, has died, his family announced Sunday. He was 85.

His son Anthony said Brutus died in his sleep on Saturday at his home in Cape Town after a battle with prostate cancer.

Brutus was jailed with Nelson Mandela on Robben Island for a period in the 1960s.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation said Brutus' contribution to the struggle against apartheid and his efforts to bring about social justice in the world "are appreciated and will be remembered for many years to come."



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5geuDUBmDRCFcrbeq6TbJTqIngNZA

---

Dennis Brutus was a hero of the last great liberation struggle of the 20th century. He was an example for all people who use words to break chains. Amandla!

By the way, one of Brutus' last acts was to send a recording of himself reciting his poem "Gull" to the activists who were protesting at Copenhagen. Brutus had planned to attend, but his final illness made it impossible for him to travel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RRLnEo85xw

[Ken Burch]

1. Here's the text of one of Brutus' poems

Their Behaviour

Their guilt
is not so very different from ours:
—who has not joyed in the arbitrary exercise of
power
or grasped for himself what might have been
another’s
and who has not used superior force in the
moment when he could,
(and who of us has not been tempted to these
things?)—
so, in their guilt,
the bare ferocity of teeth,
chest-thumping challenge and defiance,
the deafening clamor of their prayers
to a deity made in the image of their prejudice
which drowns the voice of conscience,
is mirrored our predicament
but on a social, massive, organized scale
which magnifies enormously
as the private dehabille of love
becomes obscene in orgies

[demoleft]

2. sad, yes. i read about his death earlier today. the voice of a free man. rec. n/t

[Ken Burch]

3. Thanks for those words.

Here's a poem Brutus delivered at the closing session of the eighth meeting of the Network of Intellectuals and Artists in Defence of Humanity and the World Forum for Alternatives, October 18, 2008:


There will come a time
There will come a time we believe
When the shape of the planet
and the divisions of the land
Will be less important;
We will be caught in a glow of friendship
a red star of hope
will illuminate our lives
A star of hope
A star of joy
A star of freedom

[demoleft]

4. it feels good to sit within the circle of his voice and words. thanks to u for them. n/t

[tabatha]

5. RIP Dennis Brutus

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."

[David__77]

6. A great anti-imperialist, revolutionary, and socialist.

He made very important contributions to the liberation of South Africa.

[Vidar]

7. RIP Mr. Brutus.