John Kani
South African theatre great
John Kani. Photo courtesy www.africanfilmfestival.org
Actor, director, playwright and co-founder of Johannesburg’s Market Theatre Laboratory, Bonsile John Kani, affectionately known as the “grandfather of South African theatre”, was born in New Brighton, in the Eastern Cape, on November 30, 1943.
Kani felt the lure of the theatre early on in life, taking to the stage while still at school. In 1965, while working for the Ford Motor Company in Port Elizabeth, he joined the Serpent Players – an acting collective whose first performance was in the former snake pit of a zoo – in which he worked alongside Athol Fugard and Winston Ntshona.
Kani, Ntshona and Fugard’s collaborative relationship resulted in the internationally acclaimed productions Sizwe Banzi is Dead (1972) and The Island (1973). Both plays made strong political statements about the repressive apartheid regime of the day: The Island, inspired by a true story, is set in an unnamed prison that is clearly based on Robben Island, while Sizwe Banzi is Dead tells of the regime’s restrictive pass laws.
In 1975, Ntshona and Kani were recognised in New York for their performances in The Island and Sizwe Banzi is Dead, jointly receiving a Tony Award for Best Actor for their work. Upon his return to South Africa, Kani was arrested and detained for 23 days.
Kani’s 1982performance in Miss Julie in Cape Town was particularly controversial. Half of the audience walked out of the production when he kissed a white woman on stage – an act that resulted in death threats and an assassination attempt, in which he was stabbed 11 times.
In 1989, Kani and Market Theatre co-founder Barney Simon founded Johannesburg’s Market Theatre Laboratory, a drama school for young people who could not attend university because they lacked the funds or educational qualifications. Today, the Lab runs outreach and community training programmes and stages community festivals, and Kani is the executive trustee of the Market Theatre Foundation.
Kani made his debut as sole playwright in 2002 with Nothing but the Truth, which was first performed at the Market Theatre. The play, setin post-apartheid South Africa, explores the tensions between black South Africans who stayed in the country during the anti-apartheid struggle and those who went into exile. The play is a tribute to Kani’s brother, who was killed by police in 1985 while reciting a poem at the funeral of a nine-year-old girl killed during riots.
Nothing but the Truthhas received numerous accolades. In 2003 it won three Fleur Du Cap Awards, for Best Actor, Best Indigenous Script and Best New South African Play. It has also won five Naledi Theatre Awards and had successful runs locally and abroad (it has been staged in Los Angeles, Boston, Sydney and New York). In 2008 the play was made into a feature film.
Kani himself has been the recipient of various local and international awards in the course of this theatrical career. In 2003, he received an Obie award in the US acknowledging his contribution to theatre. On February 20, 2010, he was honoured with a South African Film and Television Lifetime Achievement Award. He has also received the Avanti Hall of Fame Awardfrom the South African film, television and advertising industries, an M-Net Plum Award and a Clio Award in New York. In 2005 the South African government bestowed the Order of Ikhamanga in Silver on Kani in recognition of his contribution to theatre and the struggle for a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa.
Other awards include the Hiroshima Peace Culture FoundationAward (2000) and the Olive Schreiner Prize(2005). In 2006, Kani was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Cape Town.