Muntu wa Bachaki
Muntu wa Bachaki (1950-2020) is an actor, playwright and poet.
Political pseudonym of Angifi Proctor Dladla.
Contents
Biography
Angifi Proctor Dladla was born on 24 November 1950 in Thaka township in Gauteng, formerly the Transvaal. His mother was a domestic worker and his father, initially a teacher, went into industry. After his parents’ divorce in his early childhood, he moved from Irene to Kgabalatsane, to Shoshanguve, visiting his father in KwaDukathole and later, Katlehong.
He passed away on 17 October 2020.
Career
He started writing poetry and plays while still a scholar at St. Chad’s High in Ladysmith, where his plays were performed by fellow students. He has worked as a poet, playwright, poetry editor, school teacher and teacher of creative writing. During the apartheid years Dladla went by the name Muntu wa Bachaki to elude the authorities.
He founded a number of community organisations, including Bachaki Theatre (in 1987), the Community Life Network (a non-profit cultural organisation supporting community reconstruction and development), Akudlalwa Communal Theatre (he was also the director), ERTON and Boksburg Progressive Presses and the Femba Writing Project (which initiates and facilitates school and prison newspapers and creative writing).
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
He was the author of eight plays, including Mistress Magumbo and Top Down (which he wrote and directed, 1988).
Other works
Poetry:
- The Girl Who Then Feared to Sleep, Deep South, Grahamstown, 2001
- We Are All Rivers, Katlehong, Chakida Publishing, 2010
Anthologies:
- Walala Wasala, Katlehong, Chakida Publishing, 2004
- Reaching Out: Poems from Prison, Katlehong, Chakida Publishing, 2010
Sources
Andile Xaba. 2021. 'Collective memory and the construction of a historical narrative, analysis and interpretation of selected Soweto-based community plays (1984–1994)'. Unpublished PhD thesis.
Ruphin Coudyzer. 2023. Annotated list of his photographs of Market Theatre productions. (Provided by Coudyzer)
Kelwyn Sole. 'Poet Angifi Proctor Dladla'. Poetry International. https://www.poetryinternational.com/en/poets-poems/poets/poet/102-17853_Dladla
Poetry Potion [1].
