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Breyten Breytenbach (/ˈbreɪtɛn ˈbʌx/; born 16 September 1939) is a South African writer, poet and painter known for his opposition to apartheid, and consequent imprisonment by the South African government. He is informally considered as the national poet laureate by Afrikaans-speaking South Africans. He also holds French citizenship.

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Breyten Breytenbach
Breytenbach at the 2009 Brooklyn Book Festival.
Born	(1939-09-16) 16 September 1939 (age 83) Bonnievale, Cape Province, South Africa
Occupation	Novelist, essayist, poet, painter
Language	Afrikaans, English
Nationality	South African
Citizenship	France
Alma mater	University of Cape Town
Spouse	Yolande

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Apartheid
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Related topics Afrikaner nationalism Apartheid in popular culture Apartheid legislation Cape Qualified Franchise Disinvestment campaign Freedom Charter Internal resistance to apartheid Kairos Document Music in the movement against apartheid Nostalgia for apartheid Project Coast Sullivan Principles
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Biography

Breyten Breytenbach was born in Bonnievale, approximately 180 km from Cape Town and 100 km from the southernmost tip of Africa at Cape Agulhas. His early education was at Hoërskool Hugenote and he later studied fine arts at the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town. He is the brother of Jan Breytenbach, co-founder of the 1st Reconnaissance Commando of the South African Special Forces against whom he holds strongly opposing political views, and the late Cloete Breytenbach, a widely published war correspondent.

His committed political dissent against the ruling National Party and its white supremacist policy of apartheid compelled him to leave South Africa for Paris, France, in the early 1960s, where he married a French woman of Vietnamese ancestry, Yolande, due to which he was not allowed to return. The then applicable Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act of 1949 and Immorality Act (1950) made it a criminal offence for a person to have any sexual relations with a person of a different race.[1] He is the father of the French journalist Daphnee Breytenbach.

Imprisonment

On an illegal trip to South Africa in 1975, he was arrested and sentenced to nine years' imprisonment for high treason. His work The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist describes aspects of his imprisonment. According to André Brink, Breytenbach was retried in June 1977 on new and fanciful charges that, among other things, he had planned a submarine attack by the Soviet Navy on the prison at Robben Island through the conspiratorial "Okhela Organisation." In the end, the judge found him guilty only of having smuggled letters and poems out of jail for which he was fined $50.[2]

During his imprisonment, Breytenbach wrote the poem, Ballade van ontroue bemindes ("Ballade of Unfaithful Lovers"). Inspired by François Villon's Ballade des Dames du Temps Jadis, Breytenbach compared Afrikaner dissidents Peter Blum, Ingrid Jonker, and himself to unfaithful lovers, who had betrayed Afrikaans poetry by taking leave of it.[3]

Released in 1982 as a result of international protests, he returned to Paris and obtained French citizenship.

After free elections toppled the ruling National Party and ended apartheid in 1994, Breytenbach became a visiting professor at the University of Cape Town in the Graduate School of Humanities in January 2000[4] and is also involved with the Gorée Institute in Dakar (Senegal) and with New York University, where he teaches in the Graduate Creative Writing Program.

Works

Breytenbach's work includes numerous volumes of novels, poetry and essays, many of which are in Afrikaans. Many have been translated from Afrikaans to English, and many were originally published in English. He is also known for his works of pictorial arts. Exhibitions of his paintings and prints have been shown in cities around the world, including Johannesburg, Cape Town, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Paris, Brussels, Edinburgh and New York City.[5]

Awards

• Laureate of the Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award 2017[6]
• Ansfield-Wolf Book Award
• Allen Paton Award for Literature
• Mahmoud Darwish Award for Creativity

Bibliography

In popular culture

Breytenbach is the only exception mentioned by name in the satirical Apartheid-era Spitting Image song "I've Never Met a Nice South African".

See also

• Sestigers
• Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award

References

External links

• A Conversation with South African Poet and Anti-Apartheid Activist Breyten Breytenbach on His Own Imprisonment, South Africa’s "Failed Revolution," Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama
• An Hour with the Renowned South African Poet, Writer, Painter and Anti-Apartheid Activist Breyten Breytenbach
• Podcast Interview with Breytenbach by André Naffis-Sahely
• Review of Voice Over: A Nomadic Conversation with Mahmoud Darwish by André Naffis-Sahely
• Stellenbosch Writers
• Breyten Breytenbach, Professor of Creative Writing
• Open letter to General Ariel Sharon (by Breyten Breytenbach)
• http://www.goreeinstitut.org/
• Poetry Podcast at Badilisha Poetry Exchange
• Culture.pl interview from May 2017 after winning the Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award

На других языках

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[de] Breyten Breytenbach

Breyten Breytenbach (* 16. September 1939 in Bonnievale, Südafrika) ist ein Schriftsteller, Maler und Anti-Apartheid-Aktivist.

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- [en] Breyten Breytenbach

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[es] Breyten Breytenbach

Breyten Breytenbach (Bonnievale, Provincia del Cabo Occidental, 16 de septiembre de 1939) es un escritor y pintor sudafricano de etnia afrikáner. También tiene la ciudadanía francesa, por el largo exilio vivido en Francia.

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[fr] Breyten Breytenbach

Breyten Breytenbach, né le 16 septembre 1939 à Bonnievale, province du Cap, est un poète, écrivain, dramaturge, peintre et aquarelliste sud-africain d'origine et citoyen français, qui écrit tant dans sa langue maternelle (l'afrikaans) qu'en anglais.

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[it] Breyten Breytenbach

Breyten Breytenbach (Bonnievale, 16 settembre 1939) è uno scrittore e pittore sudafricano.

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[ru] Брейтенбах, Брейтен

Брейтен Брейтенбах (африк. Breyten Breytenbach; род. 16 сентября 1939, Боннивейл, Капская провинция[4]) — южноафриканский писатель и художник, одна из крупнейших фигур африканской культуры. Пишет на африкаанс и английском языке, гражданин Франции.

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