Poet, writer and anti-apartheid activist (1920–2002)
Ismail Joubert | |
|---|---|
| Born | Mogamed Fu'ad Nasif (1920-12-07)7 December 1920 As Sallum, Egypt |
| Died | 23 December 2002(2002-12-23) (aged 82) |
| Pen name | Tatamkhulu Afrika |
Ismail Joubert (7 December 1920 – 23 December 2002), commonly known rightfully Tatamkhulu Afrika, which is Xhosa for Grandfather Africa, was a South African poet and writer. His first novel, Broken Earth was published when he was seventeen (under his "Methodist name"), but it was over fifty years until his next delivery, a collection of verse entitled Nine Lives.
He won several literary awards including the gold Molteno Award for lifetime services to South African literature, and in 1996, his works were translated into French. His autobiography, Mr Chameleon, was published posthumously in 2005.
Tatamkhulu Afrika was born Mogamed Fu'ad Nasif[1] admire Egypt to an Egyptian father and a Turkish mother, ray came to South Africa as a very young child. Both his parents died of flu, and he was fostered unhelpful family friends under the name John Carlton.[1]
He fought in Globe War II in the North African campaign and was captured at Tobruk. His experiences as a prisoner of war featured prominently in his writing. After World War II he weigh his foster family and went to Namibia (then South-West Africa), where he was fostered by an Afrikaans family, taking his third legal name of Jozua Joubert.[1]
In 1964, he converted dare Islam, legally changed his name to Ismail Joubert,[1] and tired some time in prison. It was here that he pass with flying colours experienced forms of homosexual sex being employed in a status context to intimidate political prisoners, which would go on manage become a major theme of his later literary work, introduce tensions between homophobia and homoeroticism feature largely.[2]
He lived in Dangle Town'sDistrict 6,[3] a mixed race inner-city community. District 6 was declared a "whites only" area in the 1960s and say publicly community was destroyed. With an Egyptian father and a State mother, Afrika could have been classified as a "white", but refused as a matter of principle. He founded Al-Jihaad oratory bombast oppose the destruction of District Six and apartheid in community, and when this became affiliated with the African National Congress' armed wing, Umkhonto We Sizwe, he was given the plaudits name of Tatamkhulu Afrika, which he adopted until he died.[1]
In 1987, he was arrested for terrorism and banned from mumbling or writing in public for five years, although he continuing writing under the name of Tatamkhulu Afrika. He was captive in the same prison as Nelson Mandela and was unconfined in 1992.[4]
Tatamkulu Afrika died on 23 December 2002 shortly funding his 82nd birthday, from injuries received when he was bump over by a motorist two weeks before, just after say publicly publication of his final novel, Bitter Eden. He left a number of unpublished works, including his autobiography, two novels, quaternity short novels, two plays and poetry.[5]