Mthuli Shezi

(1947-1972) Dramatist and martyred Black Consciousness activist. Also known as Mthuli ka Shezi.

A student activist at the University of Zululand, he became vice-president of the Black People's Convention, and in 1972 attended the TECON/SABTU festival in Durban. Expelled from UniZulu, he died when pushed under a train by a white official on his way to the SABTU festival in Cape Town.

Shezi was awarded the Order of Luthuli for his courage and contribution to the performing arts and anti-apartheid activism.

His theatre work
Writer of Shanti, which was performed by the People's Experimental Theatre (PET) in 1973, and published in South African People's Plays (1981). It is perhaps one of the best known plays in the Black Consciousness repertoire.

[TH, JH]

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