Njabulo Ndebele

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Njabulo Simakahle Ndebele (born July 4, 1948 in Johannesburg ) is a South African academic, literary scholar and writer .

Life

Njabulo Ndebele was born to Nimrod Njabulo Ndebele, a teacher, and Makhasazana Regina Zshabangu, a nurse. His father, who had taught Desmond Tutu , among other things , became headmaster in Nigel , where the family moved. From 1960 Njabulo Ndebele attended St Christopher's School , a boarding school for boys in Luyengo , Swaziland , in order to bypass Bantu Education . In 1966 he graduated from there. In 1969 he began studying at the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland (UBLS) in Roma , which he completed in 1973 with a Bachelor of Arts(BA) in English and Philosophy. In the same year the South African police looked for him, so that from then on he stayed away from his home country for a long time. In 1975 he received a BA in English Literature from the University of Cambridge . He studied at Churchill College there, where he was the first recipient of a scholarship for South Africans. In 1983 he received his PhD in English, American Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Denver .

From 1984 he was lecturer in English literature and from 1988 pro-vice-chancellor at the National University of Lesotho , where he was appointed professor in 1988 . From there he moved to the University of the Witwatersrand in 1991 as head of the department for African literature , where he succeeded Es'kia Mphahlele . From 1992 to 1993 he was Vice-Rector at the University of the Western Cape . He then worked until 1998 as a Vice-Chancellor and Principal at the University of the North . He was then a fellow of the Ford Foundation in New York .

From 2000 to 2008 he was Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Cape Town . In 2012 Ndebele was appointed Chancellor ("Chancellor") of the University of Johannesburg .

On July 30, 1971, he married Mpho Kathleen Malebo, with whom he has a son and two daughters, including the actor and theater director Makhaola Ndebele . He lives in Cape Town .

Influences

Ndebele was a member of the Black Consciousness Movement . As President of the Students Representative Council at UBLS, he gave a speech at the second congress of the South African Students' Organization (SASO) in 1972 . In 1973, the Southern African Students' Movement (SASM) was founded in Roma as the international arm of SASO , and Ndebele was elected to the board. At the same time he was an "international organizer". The SASM was supported by the International University Exchange Fund (IUEF), but it was infiltrated by South African agent Craig Williamson ; SASO and SASM chairman Abram Onkgopotse Tiro was murdered by a letter bomb in 1974 , whereupon the Southern African Students' Movement ceased to exist.

Literary work

As early as 1973 Ndebele published his first poems in magazines. In 1984 Ndebele received the Noma Award for African literature for the short story book Fools and other stories published in 1983 . Collected essays appeared in 1991 under the title Rediscovery of the ordinary, in 2007 further essays were published as Fine lines from the box . In 2004 he published the novel The cry of Winnie Mandela . It is about four women and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and their different ways of dealing with the long absence of their husbands.

further activities

Ndebele became the first President of the Congress of South African Writers in 1987 . From 2002 to 2005 he was chairman of the South African Universities Vice-Chancellors Association. He has been a member of the board of the Association of African Universities (AAU) since 2001, and was its president from 2005 to 2009. He was also the first chairman of the Southern African Regional Universities Association (SARUA) from 2005 to 2008 , which represents all universities in the Southern African Development Community . He worked for a long time at the national level as an expert in didactics .

Ndebele has been Chairman of the Boards of Trustees of the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Mandela Rhodes Foundation since 2013 .

Awards

  • 1984: Noma Award for best book published in Africa, "Fools" and other stories
  • 1984: Mofolo-Plomer Award for “Fools” and other stories
  • 1984: SANLAM prize for outstanding fiction for "Fools" and other stories
  • 1986: Thomas Pringle Award for Turkish Tales: Thoughts of South African Literature
  • 2005: Academy of English of South Africa - Gold medal for Distinguished service to English
  • 2008: K. Sello Duiker Memorial Literary Award for Fine lines from the box
  • 2009: Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Research Foundation
  • 2007: Honorary Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge
  • since 2009: Fellow of the University of Cape Town
  • since 2011: Fellow of the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies
  • 2015: Cape 300 Foundation Molteno Gold Medal for services to literature and education
Honorary doctorates

Literary works

  • 1983: Fools and other stories. Stories.
  • 1991: Rediscovery of the ordinary. Essays.
  • 1991: Bonolo and the peach tree.
  • 1993: Sarah, Rings and I. Stories.
  • 1996: Death of a son. Narrative.
  • 1999: Umpropheti / The Prophetess. Narrative.
  • 2004: The cry of Winnie Mandela. Novel.
  • 2007: Fine lines from the box. Essays.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f biography on Ndebeles website (English), accessed April 12, 2016
  2. ↑ a b c d CV on Ndebeles website (English; PDF)
  3. ↑ Portrait at sahistory.org.za (English), accessed on April 12, 2016
  4. ↑ Africa: AAU 12th general conference begins. University World News, May 3, 2009, accessed April 12, 2016
  5. ↑ SARUA : SARUA Annual Report 2008 . (English; PDF; 1.35 MB), accessed on April 12, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Ndebele, Njabulo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ndebele, Njabulo Simakahle (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African academic, literary scholar and writer
DATE OF BIRTH 4th July 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Johannesburg