A Survey of African Poetry in the London Times, Sunday Times, Financial Times, the Times Literary Supplement 1865-1985

Dennis Brutus; Race, Sports, and Poetry

In the Wednesday, January 6, 2010 obituary of Dennis Vincent Brutus published in The Times, he is described as a renowned poet, anti-apartheid activist, and sportsman who played cricket and table tennis. Born of South African parents in then Salisbury, now Harare, in Zimbabwe on the 28^th of November 1924, he died in Cape Town, South Africa on the 26^th of December 2009. Brutus also wrote under the pseudonym John Bruin.

The Encyclopedia of World Biography divides Brutus’s poetry career into five phases with notable thematic and poetic shifts necessitated by the experiences and events that grounded his writing. But Brutus’s stance on the apartheid government never changed; he consistently advocated for a South Africa free of racial discrimination and segregation. His first collection, Siren, Knuckles, Boots (1963) included lyrical yet complex poetry that conformed to English poetic traditions. When Brutus was imprisoned at Robben Island, his jail cell was beside Nelson Mandela’s. It was while he was in prison for eighteen months, two of which were spent in solitary confinement, that he questioned his poetics and intended audience. His next book explores his prison experience. Brutus “resolved thereafter to write simple, unornamented poetry that ordinary people could comprehend immediately.” His second book, Letters to Martha and Other Poems from a South African Prison (1968), shows the second phase. It is genuine and speaks directly of the poet’s intentions without any ambiguity. The collection “is deliberately conversational and devoid of poetic devices.” The beginning of the third phase was marked by his exile. After the completion of his jail term, the apartheid government gave him an “exit pass” which barred him from returning to his home country. His poetry of that period merged the simplicity and complexity of earlier works, and he wrote about homesickness and the beauty of South Africa in Poems from Algiers (1970), Thoughts Abroad (1970), and A Simple Lust (1973).

In 1973 Brutus traveled to China for a sports meeting and this trip afforded him the opportunity to explore Asian literature. He was “impressed by the extreme economy of Chinese verse, [and] he began experimenting with epigrammatic poetic forms resembling Japanese haiku and Chinese chüeh-chü,” which exemplified this fourth phase of his poetics as the collection China Poems (1975) demonstrates. In the final phase of his poetic development, Brutus's collections utilized a wide variety of poetic traditions. His poetry reflected a dynamism and surety of purpose. His work showed that he had settled into his style of self-expression and truth. He produced a range of collections that leaned on his experiences and showcased his creativity and skill.

Brutus was not only a prolific poet, he was also an anti-apartheid activist who successfully campaigned for the exclusion of South Africa from two Olympic games, Tokyo ‘64 and Mexico ‘68, and eventual expulsion from the Olympic Community in 1970. Poet and sportsman, Brutus used both of his passions to fight the apartheid government head-on. Brutus was the president of the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee (SANROC), an organization that was formed to counter the ethos of only white South African sports associations and actively campaigned against discrimination in sports. Brutus as the President of SANROC leveraged this position and the importance of sports to apartheid South Africa by cutting its international sporting connections.

Below is a timeline of some of the protests spearheaded by Dennis Brutus as they appeared in The Times and The Sunday Times:

• Neil Allen. “Anti-apartheid Sports Campaigner” The Times. January 29^th, 1968.

Allen describes Brutus as a “quietly spoken schoolmaster and poet.” Brutus, however, better reveals the personality that fuels his lifetime of activism when he says “My nature is such I always start by being pessimistic. Then I begin to fight.” On the effect that solitary confinement had on his mental health, Brutus declares “Well, I did break in the sense that I twice tried to commit suicide with a razor blade. You reach an extraordinary state of mind.” Brutus also gets into the core of his sports activism. He states, “International contact in sport is vital to the white African South. But we in SANROC don’t just fight against their status quo. We want a change of heart until South African sport is truly multi-racial in the Olympic spirit.” 

• John Lovesey. “The Great South African Sham” The Sunday Times, April 14^th, 1968.

Lovesay reports on the meeting of the executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that was held in Lausanne to readmit South Africa into the Olympic games. However, IOC President Avery Brundage drags his feet on making a decision. Lovesay acknowledges the dilemma in which he finds himself, noting that “[s]ome 46 countries have decided not to be in Mexico if South Africa is readmitted.” Meanwhile, the position of the South African Olympic Committee is very clear. It maintains “that it cannot promise the integrated sport in the foreseeable future” and Frank Braun, President of the South African Olympic Committee, says “his committee supported his government's policy.” Also in discussion is the presence of Non-white South Africans at the cricket match where the Queen would be in attendance. Lovesey concludes the news report by mentioning that Brutus was an asylee in the United Kingdom and that, “[i]t is to Britain’s credit that [Brutus] is allowed to leave here. It is also to Britain’s discredit that we do not support his cause.”

• Norman Fowler. “New Immigration Loophole Feared” The Times. July 6^th, 1968.

Brutus’s activism isn’t limited only to the Olympics. As president of SANROC, he campaigns against the presence of Non-White South Africans at the Amateur Athletic Association championships where the Queen would be in attendance. To provide context to his complicated crusade against apartheid, Brutus states “we feel we must protest against the presence of non-white athletes in South Africa who represent sports bodies affiliated to the racist South African sports organizations.” 

• Dennis Brutus. “If Arthur Ashe were African. . .” The Sunday Times. July 7^th, 1968.

In this opinion piece, Brutus attacks the racial discrimination of the South African Lawn Tennis Union (SALTU) which despite its affiliation to the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) has rules that did not conform to those of its umbrella body. SALTU allows only white South Africans as members. Brutus challenges the discriminatory tendencies of SALTU and power dynamics at ILTF where the votes of member countries carry different weights, and the more powerful countries ignore the racial discrimination by SALTU. Brutus states “[t]here may be some justification for the unequal distribution of voting power in terms of the varying organization strengths of nations where this will be to the advantage of tennis, but there can be no justification for the abuse of power when it is used in defence of racialism in sport.” He concludes, “[i]f Arthur Ashe lived in South Africa, he would not be chosen to play in the Davis Cup.”

• Neil Allen. “The Real Tragedy is South Africa Itself” The Times. September 18^th, 1968.

Allen reports on South Africa’s campaign to participate in the 1968 Olympics and the absurdity of the decision made by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The executive board of the IOC decides South Africa will be excluded from the Mexican 1968 Olympics not due to racial discrimination in its sports, but because of “the international climate” and the rising discontent against South African policies from the international community. Allen also reports Prime Minister Vorster’s remark that the exclusion of the South African cricket team from Test Cricket is tragic, but Allen counters this statement by quoting Allan Paton in his book, Cry, that “it is not sports but the whole white South African philosophy which is tragic.”

Allen confronts the British IOC's lackadaisical disposition, he states “Lord Exeter, British Vice President of the International Olympic Committee, has often shown an excessively tolerant attitude towards the White South African Philosophy.” Allen continues that the committee’s representatives “are aided in the myopic views by certain journalists who think that a jolly good game is all that matters, and they forget that the way the world lives is rather more important than the way it plays.” After the successful expulsion of South Africa from Mexico’s 1968 Olympics, Brutus' campaign garners international attention and solidarity from black people. Allen reports, “Lord Exeter is “worried about the young man up in California—by whom he meant Professor Harry Edwards, a militant American Negro, who has been trying to organize a boycott of the Olympics in protest at the lack of opportunity for those of his colour in the US.”

• “Plan to Stop South African Matches” The Times. September 11^th, 1969.

A coalition between SANROC, the Young Liberals church, and the Movement for Colonial Freedom aims to protest and push for the cancellation of the South African cricket team’s tour of Britain and of an international rugby match between England and South Africa. Brutus, in his role as the coalition’s chairman, proclaims “We are fighting British collaboration with racialism in sport. We are confident of winning.”

• Dudley Doust. “Nothing up South Africa's Sleeves” The Sunday Times. May 17^th, 1970.

Doust provides an insider view of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) meeting in Amsterdam where South Africa defends its racial discrimination policies in sport. Doust describes both South Africa’s arguments that anti-apartheid lobbyists shouldn’t have been accepted by the IOC and their accusations that there were irregularities in the process when South Africa was ousted from the IOC in 1968 as “arrogant.” The Supreme Council of Sports in Africa sent two representatives to argue their case, Abraham Ordia from Nigeria and Jean-Claude Ganga from Congo Brazzaville. Ordia and Ganga argued the charge brought by Black African countries. They believed the expulsion of the South African Olympic committee is just because the country violates the number one rule of the Olympic Charter “no discrimination is allowed against any person or country on grounds of race, religion and political affiliation.” Ordia invited the South African IOC delegate to remain a part of the IOC Movement even though South Africa was out. He said “if South Africa modifies their policies. They will be invited to the Pan African games in Lagos 1973.” For Brutus the struggle continues, as he declares: “Now we must get after Japan they have invited South Africa to play in their softball championship.”

• Neil Allen. “Agony of Mind for Black Americans” The Times. August 21^st, 1972.

By 1972, Brutus’ activism had morphed into a Pan-African movement with solidarity from Africans and Black Americans. Allen reports on the protests by athletes of African descent in the Munich Olympics of 1972. There is evidence of racism in sports in Rhodesia, so Brutus decides to protest its participation, but he changes his tactics. He states, “we will have a successful Olympics—without Rhodesia.” He promises that African countries will pull out of the Olympics if Rhodesia participates in the parade. Allen’s reporting provides a close-up of the turmoil felt by African, Black British, and Black American athletes. The athletes know that this touted protest will be a watershed moment in the fight against racism in sports. The Olympics is the largest sports platform to make their stand known to the world and they did not want to be on the wrong side of history, but they had also prepared to compete at the games for years. Fortunately, the IOC moves in at the last moment and does not allow Rhodesia to take part in the games.

• Allen Neil. “These Tarnished Olympics” The Sunday Times. July 25^th, 1976.

The 1976 Montreal Olympics will go down in history as one where African countries took matters into their own hands and made their demands known to the rest of the world that is reluctant to join their protest. In the words of Ganga, Supreme Council of African Sports representative, “in our problems we are alone, we have to do this on our own. The African countries protested New Zealand’s All Black tour of South Africa. New Zealand responded that “their country does not mix politics with sports.” Furthermore, Allen reports: “Last week in Montreal [shows] just how much the African boycott decimated the Olympic Games was only too evident. In just two days, of the competition 1,000,000 Canadian dollars we're [sic] lost when events involving African countries had to be cancelled and seat money refunded.” African countries failed to show up at basketball and boxing matches, track and field events, and long-distance running events. Brutus, ever the activist, declares, “If they (African countries) are prepared to go through with this—which is more than we would ever ask—who are we to quarrel? We’re with them.”

Brutus continued his fight against apartheid until its abolishment in 1990. He returned to South Africa in 1991 after teaching at the University of Denver, Northwestern University, and the University of Pittsburgh. He shifted the focus of his activism to the “neoliberal policies of post-apartheid governments.” He died at 85, and was survived by his wife, Mary Jaggers, and eight children.

Bio: Olufunke Ogundimu was born in Lagos, Nigeria. She's a doctoral student in Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She's a graduate of the University of Lagos, and University of Nevada, Las Vegas MFA International program in fiction. March 20, 2020.

Work Cited

Allen, Neil. “Agony of Mind for Black Americans.” The Times, 21August1972,

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Allen, Neil. “These Tarnished Olympics.” The Sunday Times. 25 July1976,

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Allen, Neil.“Anti-apartheid Sports Campaigner.” The Times, 29 January 1968,

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Allen, Neil. “The Real Tragedy is South Africa Itself.” The Times, 18 September 1968,

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Brutus, Dennis. “If Arthur Ashe were African.”The Sunday Times, 7 July 1968

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Brutus, Dennis. “South African History Online.”https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/dennis-brutus

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Doust, Dudley. “Nothing Up South Africa's Sleeves.”The Sunday Times,17 May 1970,

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Fishlock, Trevor. “Apartheid's Arch-Enemy Wins Right Of Asylum.” The Times, 8 September 1983,

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Fowler, Norman. “New Immigration Loophole Feared. The Times,6 July 1968,

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“Plan to Stop South African Matches.” The Times, 11 September 1969,

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