In 2014 we had to say goodbye to many great writerly voices, including Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer, Chris van Wyk, Hennie Aucamp, Peter Clarke, Mafika Gwala, Verna Vels and Gerald Kraak. The international community also mourned the loss of Maya Angelou, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and PD James.
As a tribute to their lives and invaluable contributions, we present the Books LIVE articles that were published after we heard the news of their passing:
Academic, poet and storyteller Prof Mbulelo Vizikhungo Mzamane passed away in February.
The Director of the Centre for African Literary Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and former Vice-Chancellor of University of Fort Hare was called a “visionary leader, [and] one of South Africa’s greatest intellectuals” by Nelson Mandela.
Victor Dlamini recorded a podcast with Mzamane for Books LIVE in 2008, remarking that the professor “has the ability to plunge straight into the belly of a narrative and bring forth its gentle resonances”.
Zimbabwean William Bango, former Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) presidential spokesman and veteran journalist, passed away at the age of 62 following a car accident in February. Bango collaborated with MDC founder Morgan Tsvangirai on Morgan Tsvangirai: At the Deep End.
Bango worked as a journalist before acting as Tsvangirai’s spokesperson from 2002 and then becoming the party’s director for policy implementation in 2008. He had since retired from the party. Thomas Chiripasi and Sithandekile Mhlanga report that Bango once served as the president of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists and that he has been described as “a doyen of the journalism fraternity in Zimbabwe” by one of his former colleagues.
Hennie Aucamp, een van die mees geliefde en gevierde Afrikaanse skrywers, het op Donderdag 20 Maart 2014 stil heengegaan, berig Die Burger. Aucamp is bekend vir sy enorme oeuvre wat kabarettekste, gedigte, kortverhale en noemenswaardige akademiese tekste insluit. Hy het al ’n indrukwekkende hoeveelheid pryse ontvang, onder meer die Fleur du Cap-teaterprys vir lewenswerk en bydrae tot teater, die Hertzogpryz en Gustav Preller-prys vir Literatuurwetenskap.
Aucamp het onlangs sy 80ste verjaardag gevier, terwyl sy kollegas en vriende sy werk en wese gevier het met ’n verskeidenheid huldigingsgeleenthede wat dit duidelik gestel het dat Afrikaanse literatuur, en ook Suid-Afrikaanse literatuur, sonder hom baie arm sou wees.
Peter Clarke, one of South Africa’s most versatile and talented artists, passed away in April, aged 84.
Clarke worked as a dockworker before becoming a professional artist in the mid-1950s, and was best known for his printmaking and woodcuts, although he more recently worked with collage. He also wrote essays, short stories and poetry.
In an interview with Artthrob in 2003, Clarke joked: “Had I been triplets, it would have made it much easier because each could have his own job. There are times when I go through a writing phase and there are times for phases of picture-making but there is never a dull moment.”
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Nobel Prize-winning author of One Hundred Years of Solitude, died in Mexico in April. He was 87 years old.
Marquez received 1982 the Nobel Prize in Literature, some fifteen years after his iconic – some would call it immortal – novel of magic realism was published. The Nobel committee cited his “richly composed world of imagination.”
American author, poet, historian and civil rights activist Maya Angelou died at her home in North Carolina, USA, in May, aged 86.
Angelou’s failing health had led to her cancelling an appearance at the Major League Baseball Beacon Awards, where she was to be honoured for her civil rights work.
Angelou leaves behind three books of essays, several books of poetry and seven autobiographies, but it was her 1969 memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, that brought her international fame.
Angelou wrote a touching tribute poem to Nelson Mandela after his death late last year, “His Day is Done”.
Anthony Fleischer, the President of South African Pen for many years, died on 5 June at home in Cape Town. He was 85.
Fleischer, who lived in Cape Town, was the author of eight novels. His first novel, written under the pen name Hans Hofmeyer, was called The Skin is Deep, and published in 1958. It was well reviewed in England, but banned by the apartheid government when it reached South Africa, which was the catalyst for Fleischer to join South African Pen.
Author Dan Jacobson, born and raised in South Africa, died in June, at the age of 85.
Following his childhood in Kimberley, Jacobson had married a teacher from Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and moved to London where he “built up a substantial corpus of fiction dealing with his native country”.
John Sutherland writes in The Guardian that “it climaxed with The Beginners (1966). His longest work (Jacobson was never one to squander words), it was his equivalent to Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks, telling the story of a dynasty of Lithuanian Jews ‘beginning’ over again in South Africa”.
In this obituary, Sutherland comments on the pace at which Jacobson’s writing evolved: “He shed authorial skins like a snake … and in his later years he moved, powerfully, into non-fictional literary territories: autobiography, travel writing and even theology.”
Zimbabwean author and political activist Wilfred Mhanda, described as “Mugabe’s longest serving nemesis”, passed away after a long fight with colon cancer, on 28 May at Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare.
Mhanda, who was also known as Dzinashe Machingura or Dzino, was instrumental in Zimbabwe’s fight for independence, and later was vocal in his criticism of Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe, leading to his removal from his military position in 1977. After studying biochemistry in Germany, Mhanda helped found the Zimbabwe Liberators’ Platform.
One of South Africa’s most distinguished literary personalities, Nobel literature laureate Nadine Gordimer, passed away at her home in Johannesburg, aged 90.
Among her many literary achievements number the 1974 Booker Prize, the 2002 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991.
Verna Vels, die skepper van die geliefde Liewe Heksie-karakter, het saggies in haar slaap gesterf na ‘n kort stryd met kanker.
Huldeblyke stroom van oral in en almal is dit eens: Haar impak is van onskatbare waarde. Een aanhanger skryf, “even if you aren’t Afrikaans like me, we all know the unmistakable voice of Verna Vels”.
‘n Versameling van die beste Liewe Heksie-stories is beskikbaar in Liewe Heksie Omnibus, uitgegee deur NB-Uitgewers.
Legendary South African poet, writer, and activist Mafika Pascal Gwala died in September, at the age of 67.
Gwala passed away after battling an illness, according to a statement released by Minister of Arts and Culture Nathi Mthethwa.
Mthethwa said: “It is with deep sadness that we learned of the passing of legendary poet and short story writer, Pascal Mafika Gwala, after an illness.
“Gwala was, in his own right, a committed anti-apartheid critic and cultural activist who, from a young age, was part of the Black Consciousness movement that espoused the principle of self-determination for African people.”
Chris van Wyk, the beloved poet, editor and author who first came to prominence during the struggle against apartheid, then set a high water mark as a memoirist and writer of children’s books, died in Johannesburg in October.
Van Wyk was born in Soweto in 1957, and grew up in Riverlea, a “coloured” section of south-western Johannesburg, where his two memoirs, Shirley, Goodness and Mercy and Eggs to Lay, Chickens to Hatch, are set.
He worked as an editor at the literary magazine Staffrider, as well as at Ravan Press, the storied publisher of dissident voices opposed to apartheid. In 1979, he published one of the most-quoted anti-apartheid poems, “In Detention”, which appeared in the collection It is Time to Go Home under the Ad Donker imprint, and for which van Wyk received the Olive Schreiner Prize.
Gerald Kraak, author of Ice in the Lungs and prominent figure in the South African LGBTI movement, lost his battle with cancer in October.
The great number of tender tributes from various human rights organisations and prominent social activists bear testament to Kraak’s invaluable contribution to the South African society.
Zackie Achmat writes on GroundUp: “Gerald’s work, love, activism, intellectual contributions and personal generosity lives on in all of us.” The Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) writes, “We will always remember Gerald’s rock-solid support, his careful and wise counsel and his wicked sense of humour. He will be sorely missed.”
PD James, best-selling British crime fiction author, passed away in November. She was 94, and has more than 20 novels to her name.
James wrote meticulously researched and critically acclaimed novels. Her debut novel, Cover her Face, was released in 1962. Her last book published was Death Comes to Pemberley, a spin-off of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. A number of her novels were adapted for film and television. Adam Dalgliesh, the detective hero who featured in many of her books, is well-known around the world.
In an article for BBC News, Nick Higham wrote that James was determined to keep writing even in her old age because, as she said, “the thing about being a writer is that you need to write”.
Tributes have been streaming in from all over the world after news broke that Ian Player, author of The White Rhino Saga and renowned conservationist, passed away in November.
“On Friday, rumours of Player’s death arose after his brother and renowned golfer Gary Player tweeted: ‘My beloved brother Ian has cast his canoe onto the river of life that will shortly take him across to the other side. I will miss you. Love’”, News24 writes in their obituary.
In 1951 Ian Player initiated the Dusi Canoe Marathon, between Pietermartizburg and Durban. The race now attracts over 2000 competitors each year from around the globe. Ian Player won the first six-day race in 1951 despite being bitten by a night adder during the course. Two more victories followed in 1953 and 1954. He is the founder member of the Natal Canoe Club. Whilst warden of the iMfolozi Game Reserve he spearheaded Operation Rhino, which saved the few remaining Southern race of White rhino.
Professor Emeritus Jeff Guy, a colossus on South Africa’s academic scene who reshaped our understanding of KwaZulu-Natal, wrote several distinguished biographies of its colonial inhabitants, and exerted enormous influence on a rising generation of South African historians, died suddenly in England on 15 December, at 74 years old.
Guy was in London to give an address to a 200 year anniversary conference in honour of John William Colenso – the subject of one of Guy’s books – held at St John’s College, Cambridge. According to a person in attendance, his presentation was among the most insightful he had ever delivered, and drew wide acclaim.
Since the confirmation of his death, tributes and memories have been appearing in social media, as colleagues and students remember Guy, who was known for his gruff humour, and for the unflagging encouragement he gave to his students. The possibility of a scholarship in his name is being discussed.
Book details
- The Children of Soweto by Mbulelo Mzamane
EAN: 9780636113602
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- Morgan Tsvangirai: At the Deep End by Morgan Tsvangirai, T William Bango
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EAN: 9780143026822
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- Skulp by Hennie Aucamp
EAN: 9781485300694
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- Listening to Distant Thunder: The Art of Peter Clarke by Elizabeth Rankin, Philippa Hobbs
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EAN: 9781775841616
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- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
EAN: 9780141032436
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- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
EAN: 9780345514400
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- The Electronic Elephant: A Southern African Journey by Dan Jacobson
EAN: 9780140176209
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- Dzino: Memories of a Freedom Fighter by Wilfred Mhanda
EAN: 9781779221438
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- No Time Like the Present by Nadine Gordimer
EAN: 9781770102590
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- Liewe Heksie Omnibus by Verna Vels, illustrated by Piet Grobler
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EAN: 9780798142212
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- No More Lullabies by Mafika Gwala
EAN: 9780869751336
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- Eggs to Lay, Chickens to Hatch by Chris van Wyk
EAN: 9781770101739
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- Ice in the Lungs by Gerald Kraak
EAN: 9781770092280
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- Cover Her Face by PD James
EAN: 9780571245901
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- Into the River of Life: A Biography of Ian Player by Graham Linscott
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EAN: 9781868425464
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- Remembering the Rebellion by Jeff Guy
EAN: 9781869141172
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