Keita, Fodéba (1921–1969)
Fodéba Keita was a poet, playwright, musician, choreographer, impresario, anti-colonial activist, and statesman. As the leader of several musical bands, author of poems and essays,…
Search Results 1 - 25 of 91
La Création du Monde
A ballet inspired by a creation fable in Blaise Cendrars’s Anthologie nègre (1921), La Création du monde (The Creation of the World) was produced by…
Fugard, Athol (1932--)
Athol Fugard has been a novelist and memoirist (of sorts), but is best known for his pioneering political work in the theatre as a writer,…
Glasser, Sylvia (1940–)
Over the course of a career that stretches across from the regime of apartheid through the transition and into the establishment of a democratic republic,…
Campbell, Roy (1901–1957)
Schooled in South Africa, in 1919 Campbell went to Oxford, but never entered the university. After marriage to Mary Garman in 1922, and the success…
Opperman, Diederik Johannes (1914–1985)
Dirk Opperman is known as a poet whose poetry is deeply concerned with Africa as a physical and symbolic space. As a dominant poetic figure…
Plaatje, Solomon Tshekisho (1876–1932)
Born in 1876 in the rural Free State, Sol Plaatje is descended from the Barolong boo-Modiboa, royals who had been deposed in the 1500s. The…
Tshelantende
Tshelantende was an artist, tailor, and hunter born before the turn of the twentieth century in Luluaburg, today’s Kananga, and lived until 1950s in Ibanshe…
Bouabré, Frédéric Bruly (1923–2014)
Frédéric Bruly Bouabré is one of the best-known contemporary African artists. His drawings first gained international exposure in 1989 when exhibited in the groundbreaking show…
Livingstone, Douglas James (1932–1996)
Douglas Livingstone is regularly cited as South Africa’s pre-eminent poet of the twentieth century. Born in Malaysia, but settling in South Africa at the age…
Nsukka School
The Nsukka School, which is named after the University of Nigeria at Nsukka, was a group of artists and faculty members associated with the use…
Zaria Art Society, The
Formed in 1958 by a group of undergraduate students in the Fine Art Department of the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology (later renamed…
Marais, Eugène (1871–1936)
Eugène Marais played an astounding number of roles: he was poet, fictionalist, essayist, naturalist, radical experimenter, hypnotist, medical doctor, psychologist, equestrian, prospector, businessman, journalist, advocate,…
Smith, Pauline (1882–1959)
Pauline Smith was born in Oudtshoorn, in the Little Karoo, South Africa. Her beloved father, who was the first resident physician of the area, died…
Nortje, Arthur Kenneth (1942–1970)
From the University of the Western Cape, Arthur Nortje left for Jesus College, Oxford, to which he returned after teaching for two years in Canada.…
Gwala, Mafika Pascal (1946–)
Born in the Verulam area of the then Natal province (now KwaZulu-Natal), the population of which was largely Indian and Zulu, Mafika Gwala’s response to…
Gray, Stephen (1941–)
Novelist, poet, dramatist, and critic Stephen Gray was born in Cape Town and educated at the universities of Cape Town, Cambridge, and Iowa, where he…
Rive, Richard Moore (1931–1989)
Born 1 March 1931 in Cape Town, South African author Richard Rive was a novelist, editor, short story writer, and critic. Rive grew up in…
Black Girl (1966)
Black Girl is the first feature-length sub-Saharan African production directed by Ousmane Sembène, also known as the father of African cinema. The film traces the…
Senghor, Léopold Sédar (1906–2001)
Poet, politician, and cultural theorist, Léopold Sédar Senghor was the first president of Senegal from 1960 to 1980. His devotion to the arts as a…
Leroux, Etienne (1922–1989)
Etienne Leroux was the pseudonym of Stephanus Petrus Daniël le Roux. He was an innovative and eccentric writer, considered to be the greatest novelist among…
Schoeman, Karel (1939–)
Although Karel Schoeman is not as well-known as his South African contemporaries André Brink, Nadine Gordimer, J. M., Coetzee and Breyten Breytenbach, he is one…
Said, Mahmoud (1897–1964)
Said’s vibrant canvases portray nude Egyptian women, stylized Lebanese landscapes, and glamorous Alexandrian aristocrats. Born in 1897 in Alexandria to a prominent, landowning family, his…
Nadine Gordimer (1923–)
Nadine Gordimer is a preeminent South African writer and activist. Born in Springs, Transvaal, South Africa, to Jewish immigrants, Gordimer was briefly educated at a…
Cope, (Robert Knox) Jack (1913–1991)
‘Jack’ Cope was a South African novelist, poet, editor, and short story writer. Born June 3, 1913 in Mooi River, Natal, South Africa, he spent…