A poet, writer and painter, Mr. Breytenbach left his native country in the early 1960s to settle in Paris, where he became one of the most influential voices opposing the legal system of racial segregation in Africa. South.
“My father, the South African painter and poet Breyten Breytenbach, died peacefully this Sunday, November 24 in Paris, at the age of 85“, said daughter Daphnée Breytenbach.
Mr. Breytenbach published around fifty books during his life, including “True Confession of an Albino Terrorist” and numerous volumes of poetry, written mainly in his mother tongue, Afrikaans.
“An immense artist, activist against apartheid, he fought until the end for a better world. Naturalized French in 1982 upon his release from prison, he lived in Paris, while regularly returning to South Africa“, according to his daughter.
The writer spent seven years in detention in South Africa, where he returned illegally in 1975, including two years in solitary confinement.
French President François Mitterrand helped secure his release in 1982. Mr. Breytenbach then returned to France.
He was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor and Commander of Arts and Letters, the highest cultural distinctions in France.
Breyten Breytenbach was born in 1939 in Bonnievale, a small town in the Cape Province (south-west).
After settling in France with his wife of Vietnamese origin, Yolande Ngo Thi Hoang Lien, he continued to travel regularly to South Africa, where interracial marriages were prohibited.
“His words, his paintings, his imagination, his resilience will continue to guide us“, estimated Daphnée Breytenbach.
