Great South African playwright

Atol Fugard, who died at the age of 92, is widely recognized as one of the biggest playwrights in South Africa.

The son of Africa’s mother, he was most famous for his politically charged plays, challenging Apartheid’s racist system.

By paying tribute to Fugard, South Africa’s Minister of Arts and Culture Gitton McKenzi welcomed him as “a fearless storyteller who expelled apartheid’s harsh realities through his plays.”

“We were cursed by Apartheid, but blessed with great artists who shone light on his impact and helped to bring us out of him. We owe a huge debt to this late, wonderful man,” McKenzie added.

Fugard wrote more than 30 career plays that span 70 years, making his own sign with the blood node in 1961.

It was the first play in South Africa with a black -and -white actor – the Fugard himself, who is acting on a multicutian front, before the Apartheid regime introduced laws forbidding mixed actors and audiences.

The blood node catapulted a joint on the international scene – with the play shown in the United States, and adapted to British television.

Later, the Apartheid regime confiscated his passport, but strengthened Fugard’s determination to continue to disturb the racial barriers and to expose apartheid.

He continued to work with snake players, a group of black actors and participated in black cities, despite harassment by the Apartheid’s security forces.

Fugard’s famous plays included Boesman and Lena, who looked at the difficult circumstances of a mixed -race couple. After premiere in 1969, it was turned into a film in 2000 with the participation of Danny Glover and Angela Basset.

His novel, Tsatsi, has been turned into a movie, winning an Oscar since 2006 as the best foreign language movie.

The Prime Minister of the West Cape Province in South Africa, Alan Windye, said Fugard has a “penetrating, sharp wit”, and “his sharp understanding of our country’s political and cultural composition is incomparable.”

“It will be heavily missed,” Winde added.

Other well -known plays from him include the Sizwe Banzi is dead, and the island he co -authored with actors John Kani and Winston NTshona, in a powerful condemnation of the life of Robben Island, where the icon of the Anti -Parteid Nelson Mandela was closed.

In ordinary tribute to X, Kani publishes: “I am deeply saddened by the passage of my dear friend atoll joint. Let his soul rest in eternal peace. Elder 🌹”

Fugard won several awards for his work and received an honor of the lifelong achievements of the prestigious Tony Awards in 2011, while Time magazine described it in 1985 as the biggest active playwright in the English-language world.

“Apartheid has determined me, it’s true … But I’m proud of the work that came out of it, which bears my name,” Fugard told the AFP news agency in 1995.

Fugard feared that the end of Apartheid in 1994 could leave it a little, but still found enough material to write.

In an interview with the BBC in 2010, he said he shared the opinion of the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu that “we have lost our way” as a nation.

“I think the current society in South Africa needs the alertness of the writers, every little as the old one.

“It is a responsibility that young writers, playwrights, really have to wake up and understand that the responsibility is theirs, just as it was mine and many other writers in the earlier years.”

Additional reporting from ELETTRA NEYSMITH on the BBC.