Achmat Dangor

Achmat Dangor. (1948-2020) Novelist, playwright and poet.

Biography

Achmat was born in Johannesburg in 1948.

He was one of the founding members of the Congress of South African Writers and

His membership of the cultural group Black Thoughts led to his banning for six years (1973-1978). He subsequently taught creative writing at City University in New York, before returning to South Africa, where he worked for Kagiso and the Independent Development Trust. He later headed up various non-governmental organisations in South Africa, including the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, the Nelson Mandela Foundation and was the Southern Africa Representative for the Ford Foundation.

His poetry was published in the journals Wietie and Staffrider, anthologised in A Century of South African Poetry (1981) and published in the collection Bulldozer (1983). He also wrote the novel Bitter Fruit.

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On his return to South Africa he worked for Kagiso and the Independent Development Trust. In 2000 he was attached to the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund.

Achmat Dangor passed away on the 6 September 2020.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

His plays include Majiet.

Awards, etc

Winner of the Mofolo-Plomer Prize for the short story Waiting for Leila (1981).

His work has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2004.

In 2015 he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the South African Literary Awards (SALA).

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achmat_Dangor

NELM catalogue.

Beeld, 6 August 2000.

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