South African dissident writer and poet Breyten Breytenbach dies at 85

JOHANNESBURG – South African author and poet Breyten Breytenbach, a staunch opponent of the previous white-minority authorities’s apartheid coverage of racial oppression, has died in Paris, his household introduced Sunday. He was 85.

Breytenbach was a celebrated wordsmith, a number one voice in literature in Afrikaans — an offshoot of Dutch that was developed by white settlers — and a fierce critic of apartheid that was imposed in opposition to the nation’s Black majority between 1948 and 1990.

He moved to Paris however on a clandestine journey to his dwelling nation in 1975 he was arrested on allegations that he assisted Nelson Mandela’s then-outlawed African Nationwide Congress group in its sabotage marketing campaign in opposition to the white-minority authorities.

He was convicted of treason and served seven years in jail. Upon his launch he primarily based himself in Paris, the place he continued his anti-apartheid activism.

Breytenbach is greatest recognized for “Confessions of an Albino Terrorist,” his account of his imprisonment and the occasions resulting in it.

His work addressed themes of exile, identification and justice, his household mentioned.

“Identified for his masterful poetry collections in Afrikaans, in addition to autobiographical works reminiscent of ‘The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist’ and ‘A Season in Paradise,’ he fearlessly addressed themes of exile, identification and justice,” their assertion mentioned.

Breytenbach was a poet, novelist, painter and activist whose work touched on and influenced literature and the humanities each domestically and overseas, his household added.

He was born within the Western Cape province in 1939, however spent a lot of his life overseas.

He joined Okhela, an ideological wing of South Africa’s African Nationwide Congress, in exile, however remained deeply linked to his South African roots.

He’s survived by his spouse, Yolande, daughter Daphnée and two grandsons.