William Modisane

Bloke Modisane ( born August 28, 1923 in Johannesburg, † 1 March 1986 in Dortmund, real name William Modisane ) was a South African journalist, actor and writer.

Life

Bloke Modisane grew up in the Johannesburg district of Sophiatown. His father was murdered, his sister died of malnutrition. His mother ran a shebeen. His stage name Bloke ( German about: Comrade, type) refers to the character The Saint from the novels Leslie Charteris '.

1951 Drum magazine was founded as a lifestyle magazine especially for blacks. It had its headquarters in Sophiatown, then the center of the urban culture of South African blacks. Along with other journalists of the magazine such as Henry Nxumalo, Lewis Nkosi, Todd Matshikiza and Can Themba he made in the 1950s, the "Drum boys", whose motto is live fast, die young and have a good-looking corpse ( "Live fast, die young and have a good looking corpse " ) was. For drum he wrote mainly short stories.

In addition Modisane worked as a jazz critic at the Johannesburg Golden City Post. He increasingly turned to the play and tried to open the theater for "Black ". He was a member of the African Theatre Workshop and was the first theater production of Athol Fugard, No Good Friday, on the stage.

Modisane 1959 was co-author of the screenplay of the film Come Back, Africa, which plays mainly in Sophiatown. Due to his dissatisfaction with the oppression of apartheid in 1959, he emigrated to the United Kingdom. In 1963 he published his autobiography Blame me on History. In it he described, among others, his despair over the destruction Sophia Towns and the forced relocation of its inhabitants in the late 1950s. The book was banned in 1966 in South Africa.

Modisane continued working as an actor, including Jean Genet's play The Negro. He appeared in several films in supporting roles, including 1964 in Guns at Batasi and 1968 in Katanga. In 1973, he starred in the film Black Snake, in the Russ Meyer directed. He moved to Dortmund. In 1981, he starred in the episode of the television series on Black Cargo axis. The writer Heinrich Peuckmann sought a grant for the impoverished Modisane. A day after Modisane had learned of the scholarship, he died of an asthma attack. He was buried in Dortmund- Syburg.

Works

• Blame me on History. Thames and Hudson, London 1963; New edition: Ad. Donker, Johannesburg, 1986, ISBN 0-86-852098-5 German as: White is the law. Droemersche publishing house, Munich 1964