Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
The former Lord Mayor who fought against Apartheid
Professor fled Africa and made city his home
A former Lord Mayor of Canterbury who fled South Africa in the late 60s after facing the threat of jail for campaigning against apartheid has died aged 88.
Clive Wake, who was the civic head in 1996/97, was forced to leave his home country and seek exile in the UK after being placed under increased surveillance by police.
He was targeted because of his passionate opposition to the then Nationalist regime in South Africa.
Earlier in his life, after returning to Africa after obtaining his doctorate at the Sorbonne in France, he took up a post as a lecturer at the University of Harare (then Salisbury), where he was an active member of the underground opposition to the apartheid policies and regime of Ian Smith’s government.
It was there he established a night school for African manual workers at the university, which was all that black Africans were allowed to do at that time, to help them improve their basic education.
He also took enormous personal risks to help with the organisation of student activists, and used his role to assist their campaign for independence.
This included hiding student politician activist Byron Hove, who later became Minister for Justice, from the authorities in his house while he was being hunted by police.
He even obtained a train guard’s uniform for him so that he could be disguised and escape the country.
To have been caught aiding someone hunted by the police would have meant certain jail.
Mr Wake arrived at the University of Kent in 1967 as a young lecturer in African and Caribbean literature, and went on to be a leading academic
at the campus. He was a highly-respected translator, and his career led to his appointment as Emeritus Professor, before retiring as Dean of Humanities.
He also had a passion for Anglo-japanese relations, not least because his son Paul has a Japanese wife, Yukie, and his two grandson, Bruce and Lawrence are half-japanese.
After his time in local politics came to an end, Mr Wake was appointed vice-chancellor of the Chaucer College in Canterbury.
He retired in 2005 and his successor, Keith Wren, who was previously Master of Eliot College, says he was a great help in sharing his knowledge of Japanese culture.
“Clive was very generous in his support and encouragement of me and the students, many of who will think they owe him a great deal,” he said.
“Although a quiet man, he was a genuinely good person with a a great sense of purpose for getting things done.”
Mr Wake’s son, Paul, says his father became a city councillor, representing the Lib Dems, in a bid to make the city a better place to live and visit.
“He felt he should give something back because Canterbury had welcomed him when he came to the UK from South Africa,” he said.
But later, after stepping down as a councillor, Mr Wake resigned from the Liberal Democrat group in 2004 following a fall-out with the local leadership.
He was later appointed an honorary Alderman of the city.
Mr Wake lived in Bridge for many years with his wife Eileen, who he met while teaching in Zimbabwe.
They later moved to Sandwich and had been married for 55 years. Mr Wake died in the early hours on Saturday following a long illness.
He continued to work until six months before his death to complete a major work of translation of Stendhal’s History of Painting with his grandson Lawrence Yoshiki Wake, who is currently competing his degree in classical archaeology and ancient history at the University of Edinburgh.
“His biggest passion in life was his family and especially his two grandchildren who he doted on,” said his son Paul.
The family are organising a private funeral service.