Breyten Breytenbach

Breyten Breytenbach was born on 16 September 1939 in Bonnievale, South Africa. For secondary education, he attended Hoërskool Hugenote, in Wellington, Western Cape. He later attended the University of Cape Town, as well as philology. ==Activism and imprisonment==

Breytenbach was a political dissenter against the ruling National Party and its white supremacist policy of apartheid in the early 1960s. He was a founding member of the Sestigers, a dissident literary movement of Afrikaner writers, He was not physically assaulted, but the prison officials abused him verbally, taunted him by pointing out the censorship of letters from his mother, and allowed him no privacy to mourn her death. He served seven years as well as spending time in the United States and Europe. He was a founding member and served as executive director of the Gorée Institute in Dakar, Senegal. This arose from an historic meeting in 1987 that became known as the Dakar Conference, between exiled leaders of the ANC and a group of liberal South Africans, mostly Afrikaners, from all walks of life. This gathering, held to define a strategy for effective struggle against the apartheid regime, was one of many that opened the way for a negotiated end to apartheid in South Africa. A good friend of Breytenbach, Frederik van Zyl Slabbert, also attended. Breytenbach later taught classes at the institute. He also campaigned against other injustices in the world. He wrote an open letter in The Guardian to Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel, in 2002, saying that Israel was committing crimes against the Palestinians, and "A viable state cannot be built on the expulsion of another people who have as much claim to that territory as you have". ==Writing==

Breytenbach wrote poetry, novels, plays, and essays, mostly in Afrikaans. Many of his works have been translated into multiple languages. While in Paris, Breytenbach wrote several works about his experience as an immigrant. His work was at the time controversial in South Africa. His book ''Skryt. Om 'n sinkende skip blou te verf (Scrit. Painting Blue a Sinking Ship''), published in the Netherlands in 1972, was dedicated "to the people of South Africa, denied citizenship in their own country". The book was banned from sale in South Africa. In 1984, he published The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist. ==Art==

Breytenbach was also known for his paintings, which have been exhibited internationally in Amsterdam, ==Academia==

In January 2000, Breytenbach started a three-year stint as visiting professor in the departments of English and Drama in the Graduate School of Humanities at the University of Cape Town. He was Global Distinguished Professor at NYU for over ten years. ==Other roles==

In 2013, Breytenbach became the curator of the Poetry Festival in Stellenbosch, near Cape Town. ==Personal life, death, and legacy==

In 1962, Breytenbach met and married the daughter of the South Vietnamese ambassador to France, Yolande Ngo Thi Hoang Lien. He practised Zen Buddhism. Breytenbach died after a fall in Paris, France, on 24 November 2024, at the age of 85. His wife Yolande was by his side. He was the younger brother of Jan Breytenbach (1932 – 16 June 2024), an SADF commander with political views strongly opposed to his, and Cloete Breytenbach (1933–2019), a widely published war correspondent. Cloete was notably one of the few people given permission by South African Prime Minister John Vorster to take photographs of Nelson Mandela at Robben Island following his imprisonment there in July 1964. Breytenbach was informally considered by Afrikaans-speakers as their poet laureate and was one of the most important living poets in Afrikaans literature. One of the jurors for the 2017 Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award, German writer, publisher, and translator Michael Krüger, wrote: "Breytenbach is without question the most gifted and most productive poet of White-Africa's literature ... His works as a poet and as a painter are now acknowledged as outstanding in understanding our modern world". ==Honours and awards==

French honours • Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur • Commandeur des Arts et Lettres (France's top cultural award) for Skryt • 1986: Rapport Literature Prize, worth (a major prize) • 1994: Alan Paton Award, for Return to Paradise • 2007: W.A. Hofmeyr Prize, for "Die windvanger" • 2010: , for Outre Voix/Voice Over • Jan Campert Prize, special prize • Jacobus van Looy Prize (for literature and art) • Perskor Prize, for Voetskrif • International Publishers Prize, special prize ==In popular culture==

Breytenbach is mentioned by name as the only exception in the satirical apartheid-era Spitting Image song "I've Never Met a Nice South African". The Basque rock band Berri Txarrak dedicated the song "Breyten" to him on their 2005 album Jaio.Musika.Hil. ==Works==

Breytenbach's work includes numerous volumes of novels, poetry and essays, many of which are in Afrikaans. Many have been translated from Afrikaans to English, and many were originally published in English. Exhibitions of his paintings and prints have been shown in cities around the world. His works have been translated into many languages, including English, Dutch, German, French, Arabic, Polish, Danish, Basque, Swedish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian. Poetry in Afrikaans • Die ysterkoei moet sweet (The Iron Cow Must Sweat), Johannesburg, 1964 • Die huis van die dowe (The House of the Deaf), Cape Town, 1967 • Kouevuur (Gangrene), Cape Town, 1969 • Lotus, Cape Town, 1970 • The Remains (Oorblyfsels), Cape Town, 1970 • ''Skryt. Om 'n sinkende skip blou te verf (Scrit. Painting Blue a sinking Ship''), Amsterdam, 1972 • Met ander woorde (In Other Words), Cape Town, 1973 • Voetskrif (Footnote), Johannesburg, 1976 • Sinking Ship Blues, Oasis Editions, Toronto 1977 • And Death White as Words. An Anthology, London, 1978 • In Africa even the flies are happy, London, 1978 • Flower Writing (Blomskryf), Emmarentia, 1979 (Selected poems) • Eclipse (Eklips), Emmarentia, 1983 • YK, Emmarentia, 1983 • Buffalo Bill, Emmarentia, 1984 • Living Death (Lewendood), Emmarentia, 1985 • Judas Eye, London – New York, 1988 • As Like (Soos die so), Emmarentia, 1990 • Nine Landscapes of our Times Bequeathed to a Beloved (Nege landskappe van ons tye bemaak aan 'n beminde), Groenkloof, 1993 • The Handful of Feathers (Die hand vol vere), Cape Town, 1995 (Selected poems) • The Remains. An Elegy (Oorblyfsels. 'n Roudig), Cape Town, 1997 • Paper Flower (Papierblom), Cape Town, 1998 • Lady One, Cape Town, 2000 (Selected love poems) • Iron Cow Blues (Ysterkoei-blues), Cape Town, 2001 (Collected poems 1964–1975) • Lady One: Of Love and other Poems, New York, 2002 • The undanced dance. Prison poetry 1975 – 1983 (Die ongedanste dans. Gevangenisgedigte 1975 – 1983), Cape Town, 2005 • Die windvanger (The windcatcher), Cape Town, 2007 • Voice Over: A Nomadic Conversation with Mahmoud Darwish, Archipelago Books, 2009 • Catalects (Artefacts for the slow uses of dying) (Katalekte (artefakte vir die stadige gebruike van doodgaan)), Cape Town: Human & Rousseau, 2012 Prose in English • Catastrophes (Katastrofes), Johannesburg, 1964 (stories) • To Fly (Om te vlieg), Cape Town, 1971 (novel) • The Tree Behind the Moon (De boom achter de maan), Amsterdam, 1974 (stories) • The Anthill Bloats … (Die miernes swell op ...), Emmarentia, 1980 (stories) • A Season in Paradise (Een seizoen in het paradijs), Amsterdam – New York – London, 1980 (novel, uncensored edition) • Mouroir: Mirror Notes of a Novel, London – New York, 1983 • Mirror Death (Spiegeldood), Amsterdam, 1984 (stories) • End Papers, London, 1985 (essays) • The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist, London – New York, 1985 • Memory of Snow and of Dust, London – New York, 1987 (novel) • Book. Part One (Boek. Deel een), Emmarentia, 1987 (essays) • All One Horse. Fiction and Images, London, 1989 • Sweet Heart (Hart-Lam), Emmarentia, 1991 (essays) • Return to Paradise. An African journal, London – New York, 1992 (which won the Alan Paton Award) • The Memory of Birds in Times of Revolution, London – New York, 1996 (essays) • Dog Heart. A travel memoir, Cape Town, 1998 • Word Work (Woordwerk), Cape Town, 1999 • A Veil of Footsteps, Cape Town, 2008 • Intimate Stranger, Archipelago Books, 2009 • Notes From The Middle World: Essays, Haymarket Books, 2009 CDs • Mondmusiek (2001) • Lady One (2002) Articles • ==See also==