60 years after the UN Convention - Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation

Dennis Brutus, born 1924 in then Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), was
raised in South Africa. After completing his university studies he
taught in South African high schools. As founder and relentless
campaigner of SANROC (South African Non-Racial Olympic
Committee) he achieved the banning of South Africa and Rhodesia
from Olympic sports for decades. Under ban he tried to leave South
Africa for a boycott campaign and was arrested in Mozambique.
In 1963 while in custody in Johannesburg he attempted to escape
and was shot in the back. After 18 months’ imprisonment on
Robben Island he was sent into exile, where he settled as a political
refugee in the United States of America. An eff ort by the Reagan
administration to deport him failed after a protracted legal struggle.
Brutus is a renowned poet and has received several prestigious
literary awards. He is Professor Emeritus of the Africana Studies
Department at the University of Pittsburgh. Since his return to
South Africa he has continued to write poetry and to campaign
vigorously against oppression and exploitation.