Lewis Nkosi
Lewis Nkosi (1936-2010). Essayist, critic and dramatist.
Contents
Biography
He moved from Durban to Johannesburg in 1956 to join Drum magazine.
He left South Africa on an exit permit in the early 1960s after receiving a fellowship to study at Harvard University, beginning what was to be a long exile. The last 19 years of his life he moved back and forth between Europe, the US, Asia and South Africa.
He died in September 2010 at the age of 73.
Youth
Training
He studied at Adams College. Studied journalism at Harvard University (1960-61).
Career
He began work at Ilanga lase Natal, then moved on to Drum and Post magazines. Over a long subsequent career, Nkosi taught at universities in Zambia, Poland, and the United States.
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
He was one of the collaborators in the workshop led by Athol Fugard to create No-Good Friday (1958. A friend of Fugard’s, he played “Father Higgins” in the first production of No-Good Friday before an all-white audience in Johannesburg in 1958.
Nkosi later wrote and published his own play, The Rhythm of Violence (1964).
His essays and articles are contained in a collection entitled Home and Exile (1965).
He wrote the novels Mating Birds, Underground People and Mandela's Ego.
His works were for a while banned in South Africa under the Suppression of Communism Act.
Awards, etc
He was awarded The Order of Ikhamanga in Silver, 2008.
The University of KwaZuluNatal decided to confer a posthumous honorary doctorate degree on Professor Lewis Nkosi, 2011.
Sources
The Citizen, 29 October 2008.
Cape Times, 8 September 2010.
Sunday Independent, 8 May 2011.
NELM catalogue.
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