André Brink

André Philippus Brink was a South African novelist. He wrote in Afrikaans and English and was until his retirement a Professor of English Literature at the University of Cape Town.

He witnessed the brutal mistreatment of black people that was accepted as part of the natural order that is why Brink's early novels were often concerned with the apartheid policy. His final works engaged new issues raised by life in post apartheid South Africa.

Brink’s change of heart came when he went to Paris with his first wife, Estelle, on a scholarship in 1960. After his return the following year he determined to challenge the moral life of the Afrikaner in fiction.

After completing post-graduate studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, he taught at Rhodes University in the Eastern Cape for a number of years, before moving to Cape Town. 

In the 1960s, he and Breyten Breytenbach were key figures in the Afrikaans literary movement known as Die Sestigers ("The Sixty-ers"). These writers sought to use Afrikaans as a language to speak against the apartheid government, and also to bring into Afrikaans literature the influence of contemporary English and French trends. His novel Kennis van die aand (1973) was the first Afrikaans book to be banned by the South African government

While Brink wrote his novels in both languages, his books – amounting to more than 60 published titles - have also been translated into 33 languages world-wide. He was twice shortlisted for the Booker prize, recipient of the Martin Luther King Memorial prize and other international awards, in 1992 Brink was made Commandeur de l’Ordres des Arts et de Lettres in France.

The novel focuses on the death during detention of a man wrongly suspected of being black activist. The novel challenges apartheid depicting the transformation of a ruling class Afrikaner's opposition to the governing, white supremacist regime. The novel was initially banned in South Africa,  

The novel was adapted into a 1989 film which starred Donald Sutherland, Zakes Mokae and Susan Sarandon. The film was subsequently banned in South Africa.

. 

Rym BADRAN 2nde 4

Quote by André Brink

​