Bhekizizwe Peterson

(19*-2021) Critic, creative writer, screenwriter, film maker and academic.

Biography

BA, BAHons, MA, PhD. Research interests African Literature and Cultural Studies, Black Intellectual Tradition, African Cinema

He has been active as a participant and commentator on Black cultural practices since the late seventies. Bhekizizwe Peterson is His research interests include African literature, performance, film and popular culture; Southern African literary studies; black intellectual traditions and transnationalism; and studies of the black diaspora. Peterson joined the Department of African Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1995 as a Senior Lecturer. Between 1997 and 2000, he was Head of the Department and in 2000, promoted to Associate Professor and later Professor and Head of African Literature. Professor Bhekizizwe Peterson

He has held Fellowships at Yale University and Birmingham University. He has sat on various editorial, statutory and artistic committees, juries and boards across the continent. He has published extensively on African literature, performance, cultural studies and Black intellectual traditions in South Africa.

His books on theatre include the collection Monarchs, Missionaries and African Intellectuals: African Theatre and the Unmaking of Colonial Marginality (Wits Press, 2000).

His film credits include producing and writing the screenplays for The Children and I (1993, directed by Ken Kaplan) and the acclaimed features film Fools (1997) and Zulu Love Letter (2004), both directed by Ramadan Suleman. He has also served as a creative consultant and producer on numerous projects including noted documentaries such as Dumsani Phakathi's Wa’n Wina (2001) and Rehad Desai's Born into Struggle (2004).

In 2020, he became chairperson of the art committee of the new eight-gallery Javett Art Centre at the University of Pretoria, which aims to bring the arts of Africa to the world and the arts of the world to Africa.