Breyten Breytenbach

Breyten Breytenbach
Breytenbach in 2009
Born	(1939-09-16)16 September 1939 Bonnievale, Cape Province, South Africa
Died	24 November 2024(2024-11-24) (aged 85) Paris, France
Occupation	Novelist, essayist, poet, painter
Language	Afrikaans, English
Citizenship	South Africa France (since 1982)
Alma mater	University of Cape Town
Notable awards	Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award Anisfield-Wolf Book Award Allen Paton Award for Literature Mahmoud Darwish Award for Creativity
Spouse	Yolande
Relatives	Jan Breytenbach (brother)

Breyten Breytenbach (Afrikaans pronunciation: [brɛɪtən brɛɪtənbaχ]; 16 September 1939 – 24 November 2024) was a South African writer, poet, and painter who became internationally well-known as a dissident poet and vocal critic of South Africa under apartheid, and as a political prisoner of the National Party-led South African Government. Breytenbach is now informally considered by Afrikaans-speakers as their poet laureate and was one of the most important living poets in Afrikaans literature. He also held French citizenship.

Early life and education

Breyten Breytenbach was born on 16 September 1939 in Bonnievale, South Africa. 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 1 Reconnaissance Commando of the South African Special Forces against whom he held strongly opposing political views, and the late Cloete Breytenbach, a widely published war correspondent. Cloete, who died in 2019, was notably one of the few people who was being given permission then-South African Prime Minister John Vorster to take photographs of Nelson Mandela at Robben Island following his imprisonment there in July 1964.

His was a political dissenter against the ruling National Party and its white supremacist policy of apartheid, leading him to leave South Africa for Paris, France, in the early 1960s. There he married a French woman of Vietnamese ancestry, Yolande, as a result of 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.

Imprisonment

On an illegal trip to South Africa in 1975, he was arrested and sentenced to seven 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.

During his imprisonment, Breytenbach wrote the poem "Ballade van ontroue bemindes" ("Ballade of Unfaithful Lovers"). Inspired by François Villon's 15th-century "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.

Released in 1982 as a result of international protests, Breytenbach returned to Paris and obtained French citizenship. Breytenbach would remain a resident of Paris until his death. However, according to his daughter Daphnée, he still regularly travelled to South Africa.

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 and was also involved with the Gorée Institute in Dakar, Senegal, and with New York University, where he taught in the Graduate Creative Writing Program.

Personal life and death

From 1962 until his death in 2024, Breytenbach was married to Yolande Ngo Thi Hoang Lien, who was from Vietnam. They had a daughter, Daphnée, and two grandsons. His brother Jan died only five months before Breyten in June 2024.

Breytenbach died in Paris, France on 24 November 2024, at the age of 85. His wife Yolande was by his side.

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.

Awards

• Laureate of the Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award 2017
• Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
• Anisfield-Wolf Book Award
• Allen Paton Award for Literature
• Mahmoud Darwish Award for Creativity

Bibliography

Poetry in Afrikaans

• The Iron Cow Must Sweat (Die ysterkoei moet sweet), Johannesburg, 1964
• The House of the Deaf (Die huis van die dowe), Cape Town, 1967
• Gangrene (Kouevuur), Cape Town, 1969
• Lotus, Cape Town, 1970
• The Remains (Oorblyfsels), Cape Town, 1970
• Scrit. Painting Blue a sinking Ship. (Skryt. Om 'n sinkende skip blou te verf), Amsterdam, 1972
• In Other Words (Met ander woorde), Cape Town, 1973
• Footnote (Voetskrif), Johannesburg, 1976
• Sinking Ship Blues, Oasis Editions, Toronto 1977
• And Death White as Words. An Anthology, London, 1978
• In Africa even the flies are happy, London, 1978
• Flower Writing (Blomskryf), Emmarentia, 1979 (Selected poems)
• Eclipse (Eklips), Emmarentia, 1983
• YK, Emmarentia, 1983
• Buffalo Bill, Emmarentia, 1984
• Living Death (Lewendood), Emmarentia, 1985
• Judas Eye, London – New York, 1988
• As Like (Soos die so), Emmarentia, 1990
• Nine Landscapes of our Times Bequeathed to a Beloved (Nege landskappe van ons tye bemaak aan 'n beminde), Groenkloof, 1993
• The Handful of Feathers (Die hand vol vere), Cape Town, 1995 (Selected poems)
• The Remains. An Elegy (Oorblyfsels. 'n Roudig), Cape Town, 1997
• Paper Flower (Papierblom), Cape Town, 1998
• Lady One, Cape Town, 2000 (Selected love poems)
• Iron Cow Blues (Ysterkoei-blues), Cape Town, 2001 (Collected poems 1964–1975)
• Lady One: Of Love and other Poems, New York, 2002
• The undanced dance. Prison poetry 1975 – 1983 (Die ongedanste dans. Gevangenisgedigte 1975 – 1983), Cape Town, 2005
• the windcatcher (Die windvanger), Cape Town, 2007
• Voice Over: A Nomadic Conversation with Mahmoud Darwish, Archipelago Books, 2009
• Catalects (Artefacts for the slow uses of dying) (Katalekte (artefakte vir die stadige gebruike van doodgaan)), Cape Town: Human & Rousseau, 2012

Prose in English

• Catastrophes (Katastrofes), Johannesburg, 1964 (stories)
• To Fly (Om te vlieg), Cape Town, 1971 (novel)
• The Tree Behind the Moon (De boom achter de maan), Amsterdam, 1974 (stories)
• The Anthill Bloats … (Die miernes swell op ...), Emmarentia, 1980 (stories)
• A Season in Paradise (Een seizoen in het paradijs), Amsterdam – New York – London, 1980 (novel, uncensored edition)
• Mouroir: Mirror Notes of a Novel, London – New York, 1983
• Mirror Death (Spiegeldood), Amsterdam, 1984 (stories)
• End Papers, London, 1985 (essays)
• The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist, London – New York, 1985
• Memory of Snow and of Dust, London – New York, 1987 (novel)
• Book. Part One (Boek. Deel een), Emmarentia, 1987 (essays)
• All One Horse. Fiction and Images, London, 1989
• Sweet Heart (Hart-Lam), Emmarentia, 1991 (essays)
• Return to Paradise. An African journal, London – New York, 1992 (which won the Alan Paton Award)
• The Memory of Birds in Times of Revolution, London – New York, 1996 (essays)
• Dog Heart. A travel memoir, Cape Town, 1998
• Word Work (Woordwerk), Cape Town, 1999
• A veil of footsteps, Cape Town, 2008
• All One Horse, Archipelago Books, 2008
• Mouroir: Mirror Notes of a Novel, Archiepalago Books, 2008
• Intimate Stranger, Archipelago Books, 2009
• Notes From The Middle World: Essays, Haymarket Books, 2009

Articles

• "Mandela's Smile: Notes on South Africa's Failed Revolution". Harper's Magazine. Vol. 317, no. 1903. December 2008. pp. 39–48.

In popular culture

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

The Basque rock band Berri Txarrak dedicated the song "Breyten" to him on their 2005 album Jaio.Musika.Hil.

See also

• Sestigers
• Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award

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)
• Poetry Podcast at Badilisha Poetry Exchange
• Culture.pl interview from May 2017 after winning the Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award
• Breyten Breytenbach at IMDb
• Breyten Breytenbach discography at Discogs