John Kani Pays Tribute to Dramatist and South African Countryman Athol Fugard: “He Believed in Me and My Anger” (Guest Column)

Editor’s note: As a member of The Serpent Players repertory theater group in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, John Kani partnered with fellow Black actor Winston Ntshona and white playwright Athol Fugard in 1972 to write Sizwe Banzi Is Dead. The drama revolves around apartheid’s oppressive pass laws, which governed where Blacks could and could not work, live and not live, etc.

A year later, they wrote The Island, which is based on a true story and set in a prison not unlike the Robben Island institution where Nelson Mandela was held for 27 years. Kani and Ntshona were the lone actors in both Fugard-directed plays.

Below, Kani pays tribute to Fugard, who died recently at 92 — Mike Barnes

“It was in 1965 when everything looked so very bleak in my life living in New Brighton, Port Elizabeth. The Eastern Cape was a wasteland of pain and suffering. All the people we knew were either in detention or in exile or killed.

As young men, we were standing by eagerly to be secretly shuttled out of the country to join Umkhonto We Sizwe to train to be the soldiers that would liberate our country, our South Africa. A friend of mine, Fats Bokholan, told me about a group of actors called the Serpent Players Drama Group who were performing plays in the township. He asked whether I would like to join the group. He told me that they were doing a play called Antigone by Sophocles. This excited me so I said yes.

I arrived at the place where this group was rehearsing. I knew most of the people in the room except for a white guy who was also with them. I was a bit surprised that these militant guys, who I knew from New Brighton, were actually working with a white person! Then Fats started to introduce me to everyone and finally to the white guy. Fats said, ‘John, this is Athol. Athol, this is John.’ That was the beginning of a whole new chapter in my life — and a lifelong friendship.

Athol, Winston Ntshona and I worked together through the very difficult times of the 1960s, creating and performing in plays that examined the conditions under which Black people lived during apartheid. Of course, this immediately attracted the interest of the Security Police, who hounded the group’s every performance and even extended to our private lives. However, through all these difficult times, Athol stayed with us.

In 1972, Winston, Athol and I created Sizwe Banzi Is Dead and in 1973 together we created The Island and as they say, ‘The rest is history.’

Athol was my brother and my comrade in the Struggle for the liberation of our country — and my friend for life. No one can tell the story of protest theater without mentioning the names of Athol Fugard, Winston Ntshona and myself.

Now, with their deaths, I must accept that my two beautiful friends, Winston and Athol, are gone. Now I feel so alone. My only comfort are the memories of these two giants of the South African theater and the struggle for a better life for all.

Athol believed in me and my anger and I believed in him and his cool temperament and that the use of words is a more powerful weapon of change.

I will miss him very much.

Athol, you have been an inspiration to your fellow theater practitioners your entire life. You are a giant of South African storytelling. Your words and works have impacted so many people’s lives — inspiring them, uplifting them and educating them.

Hamba Qhawe lamaQhawe. Your work is done. Rest in peace, my true and loyal friend.”

Dr. John Kani, OIS, OBE