Alex la Guma

Alex la Guma (1925-1986). Novelist, short-story writer, dramatist and politician.

Biography
Educated in Cape Town, La Guma followed in his father’s political footsteps. He was acquitted in the treason trial of the 1950s, but was placed under house arrest, and went into exile in 1966. Up to his death he was the ANC’s Chief representative in the Caribbean. He is best-known for his socialist-realist novels dealing with the struggle of the ‘coloured’ people to assert their humanity in the face of Apartheid.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
La Guma wrote only one play, the one-act radio drama The Man in the Tree.

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