Posted by TheBlackList on December 27, 2009 at 2:41pm
One of our most powerful warriors has passed on, the great South African
poet Dennis Brutus. Many of you may recall that he spoke at our N'COBRA
Northeast Regional Conference which we held at the Univ. of Pittsburgh when I
was N'COBRA's Northeast Regional Rep.
I first met Brother Dennis in 1981, when we shared a hotel room on a trip
supporting political prisoners. Dennis was a political prisoner in Robbin
Island at the same time as Nelson Mandela. We became and stayed friends. He
became my mentor on African revolutionary politics. His breadth of
knowledge of the liberation struggles in Africa was enormous. He always remained
current. In his later years he became professor of English at the University
of Pittsburgh.
One of my fond recent memories of Dennis was when Dennis, Adjoa Aiyetoro,
and I were jurists on a tribunal that indicted George Bush. The last time I
saw Dennis was in the summer in 2008, when he invited me to one of his
poetry readings in NYC. While walking along Broadway, he gave me an earful of
the political dynamics in Zimbabwe that only someone with direct knowledge
and mature political experience could relay. His man reason for being in
NYC was to speak to the lawyers handling the South African reparations
lawsuit.
He shall be missed by all freedom fighters and he must be remembered.
Always call out his name.
A Luta Continua
Ajamu Sankofa
Lifetime member of N'COBRA
NCBLhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/Reparations_For_Africans/
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