Tribute: Remembering Achmat Dangor, the South African novelist who redefined identity

  • 📰 dailymaverick
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 36 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 18%
  • Publisher: 84%

Law Law Headlines News

Law Law Latest News,Law Law Headlines

In his 71 years, Achmat Dangor was many things to many people, both in South Africa and across the world. He was a lifelong activist and social justice advocate. He was once banned for his political activities in resistance to apartheid. He was a cultural leader at the centre of the Congress of South African Writers, a tireless development organiser and, for six years, the chief executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation. For me, he was above all an extraordinary novelist and poet who expanded how I think.

in 2004 and is probably Dangor’s best-known work. Set in urban Johannesburg, the narrative focuses on Silas and Lydia Ali and their son Mikey. As their relationships begin to unravel at the end of the Mandela presidency, silence surrounds the characters’ pasts as a counterpoint against which to examine the impact of the TRC as a form of cultural articulation.

How do we deal with our past and the uncertainties of history, Dangor asks, in a novel that floats back and forth between present and past, speech and silence, public and private.’s three sections – memory, confession and retribution – act as counterpoints against which the TRC’s processes of speak, grieve and heal are situated. He doesn’t offer any neat solutions, but traces different ways of dealing with our past.

In each of his books, he explored questions that shifted these sorts of cultural debates. Dangor’s last novel, , sits on my bedside table and I wonder what new knowledge lies within its pages for me to discover, what questions will be explored that I cannot articulate myself.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 3. in LAW

Law Law Latest News, Law Law Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

HRW: Foreigners 'live in constant fear' in South AfricaHuman Rights Watch said xenophobia remained widespread in South Africa despite a government action plan rolled out in May 2019. Fuseg!!! Sidikiwe VOETSEK enca!!!!🖕🖕 Women live in fear 24/7. Fear of being raped, killed, trafficked. But do you see that on the news? PutSouthAfricaFirst VoetsekSAMedia
Source: eNCA - 🏆 49. / 51 Read more »