Modernism in Africa
Though they often escape critical scrutiny, concepts such as modernism, modernity, and modernization are at the heart of the concept of development, and thus omnipresent…
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Capoeira
Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian movement practice that has been categorized as national sport, folklore, martial art, and dance. Although capoeira has been considered a game…
Van Wyk, Christopher (1957–2014)
Born in Baragwanath, Soweto, Chris van Wyk proved an influential figure on the South African literary scene. Associated with the Black Consciousness movement, his volume…
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,…
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,…
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…
Natural Synthesis
The concept of Natural Synthesis was set forth by members of the Zaria Art Society. They called for the merging of the best of Western…
Serote, Mongane (1944–)
Mongane Wally Serote was born four years prior to the assumption of power by the Nationalist Party in 1948. Always conscious of himself in relation…
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…