Search Results 1 - 25 of 92


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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…

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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…

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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,…

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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…

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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,…

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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…

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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,…

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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…

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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.…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…