Breytenbach’s faith journey
South African writer, poet and anti-apartheid activist Breyten Breytenbach received the 2017 Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award, named after the anti-communist Polish poet and philosopher, at a ceremony in Warsaw on Thursday.
“Staying true to your ideals is a challenge, but the life of this year’s laureate demonstrates that it is worth it to be faithful,” said Katarzyna Herbert, the Polish poet’s widow.
Born in Cape Town in 1939, Breytenbach left South Africa for Paris in the early 1960s and was already an opponent of apartheid.
He married in France but since his wife was of Vietnamese descent, he was unable to return to South Africa, where so-called mixed-race marriages were illegal.
Breytenbach, however, did return to his homeland in secret to engage in the anti-apartheid struggle, but was caught and given a nine-year jail sentence.
French President Francois Mitterrand helped secure his release in 1982 after seven years. He then returned to France and became a citizen.
Breytenbach has published about 50 books, including True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist and numerous volumes of poetry, written mainly in his native Afrikaans.
Breytenbach read his poetry at the Warsaw ceremony and also spoke of his affinity with Zbigniew Herbert’s work.
Nominated for the Nobel Literature Prize in 1991, Herbert was a symbol of Poland’s struggle against totalitarian oppression. He died in 1998. – AFP