Happy birthday, Dennis! - earn
Dennis Vincent Brutus (born November 28, 1924, Salisbury, Rhodesia) is a South African poet. A graduate of the University of Fort Hare and the University of the Witwatersrand, Brutus was formerly on the faculty of the University of Denver and Northwestern University.
Dennis Brutus was an activist against the apartheid government of South Africa in the 1960s. He worked to get South Africa suspended from the Olympics; this eventually lead to the country's expulsion from the games in 1970. He joined the Anti-Coloured Affairs Department organisation (Anti-CAD), a group that organised against the Coloured Affairs Department which was an attempt by the government to institutionalise divisions between blacks and coloureds. The Anti-CAD was affiliated to the Trotskyist Fourth International in South Africa. He was arrested in 1963 and jailed for 18 months on Robben Island.https://ello.co/faqk24
Brutus was forbidden to teach, write and publish in South Africa. Sirens, Knuckles and Boots, his first collection of poetry, was published in Nigeria while he was in prison. The book was awarded the Mbari Poetry Prize, awarded to a black poet of distinction, but Brutus turned it down on the grounds of its racial exclusivity.
After he was released, Brutus fled South Africa. In 1983, Brutus won the right to stay in the United States as a political refugee, after a protracted legal struggle. He was "unbanned" in 1990. He is the Professor Emeritus of [the]University of Pittsburgh. He has now returned to South Africa and is based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal where he often contributes to the annual Poetry Festival hosted by the University. He continues to support activism against neo-liberal policies in contemporary South Africa via insertion in a network of largely Trotskyist led NGOs. This activism includes supporting struggles against the management of the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
After he was released, Brutus fled South Africa. In 1983, Brutus won the right to stay in the United States as a political refugee, after a protracted legal struggle. He was "unbanned" in 1990. He is the Professor Emeritus of [the]University of Pittsburgh. He has now returned to South Africa and is based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal where he often contributes to the annual Poetry Festival hosted by the University. He continues to support activism against neo-liberal policies in contemporary South Africa via insertion in a network of largely Trotskyist led NGOs. This activism includes supporting struggles against the management of the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
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