Sola Osofisan
12-27-2009, 02:37 AM
Poet, anti-apartheid activist Dennis Brutus dies at 85; was jailed with Mandela in S. Africa
South African poet and former political prisoner Dennis Brutus, who fought apartheid in words and deeds and remained an activist well after the fall of his country's racist system, has died. He was 85.
Brutus' publisher, Chicago-based Haymarket Books, said the writer died in his sleep at his home in Cape Town on Saturday.
Brutus was an anti-apartheid activist jailed at Robben Island with Nelson Mandela in the mid-1960s. His activism led Olympic officials to ban South Africa from competition from 1964 until apartheid ended nearly 30 years later.
More (http://www.metronews.ca/toronto/world/article/407009--poet-anti-apartheid-activist-dennis-brutus-dies-at-85-was-jailed-with-mandela-in-s-africa)
South African poet and former political prisoner Dennis Brutus, who fought apartheid in words and deeds and remained an activist well after the fall of his country's racist system, has died. He was 85.
Brutus' publisher, Chicago-based Haymarket Books, said the writer died in his sleep at his home in Cape Town on Saturday.
Brutus was an anti-apartheid activist jailed at Robben Island with Nelson Mandela in the mid-1960s. His activism led Olympic officials to ban South Africa from competition from 1964 until apartheid ended nearly 30 years later.
More (http://www.metronews.ca/toronto/world/article/407009--poet-anti-apartheid-activist-dennis-brutus-dies-at-85-was-jailed-with-mandela-in-s-africa)