Guy Butler | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 21 January 1918 Cradock, Eastern Cape, South Africa |
| Died | 26 April 2001 (aged 83) Grahamstown, South Africa |
| Occupation | Playwright, poet |
| Period | 1952–2001 |
Frederick Guy Butler (21 January 1918 – 26 April 2001) was a South African poet, academic and writer.
He was born and educated in the Eastern Cape town of Cradock. He attended Rhodes University and received his MA in 1938. After marrying Jean Satchwell in 1940 he left South Africa to fight in the Second World War. After the war, he read English literature at Brasenose College, Oxford University, graduating in 1947.
He returned to South Africa, lecturing in English at the University of the Witwatersrand. In 1951, he returned to Rhodes University in Makhanda then known as Grahamstown, to take up a post as senior lecturer, and a year later was made professor and head of English. He remained there until his retirement in 1987, when he was appointed Emeritus Professor and Honorary Research Fellow. He received honorary doctorates from the University of Natal, the University of the Witwatersrand and Rhodes University.
Butler promoted the culture of English-speaking South Africans, which led to the charge of separatism from some critics, although he argued for integration rather than exclusivity. He was influential in achieving the recognition of South African English Literature as an accepted discipline. In his poetry he strove for the synthesis of European and African elements into a single voice.
Butler's childhood is depicted in his autobiography, Karoo Morning (1977). Bursting World (1983) continues with an account of his student years and his experiences during World War II, in North Africa and Italy. Stranger to Europe (1952), his first poetry collection, contains fine war poems. Selected Poems appeared in 1975, updated with additional poems in 1989. Pilgrimage to Dias Cross (1987) is a long meditation on racial conflict, incorporating representative voices from various groups, and ending with a prayer for unity. Butler's plays include Richard Gush of Salem (1982) and Demea (1990). A Local Habitation (1991) continues his autobiography up to 1990.
His sister, Dorothy Eyre Murray (née Butler), was also a poet.
Butler died in Grahamstown in 2001. [1] The main theatre in the 1820 Settlers National Monument in Grahamstown is named in his honour. [2] Guy Butler House, a student residence at Rhodes University is also named after him. [3]
Andrew Geddes Bain, was a South African geologist, road engineer, palaeontologist and explorer.
Neil Aggett was a Kenyan and South African doctor and trade union organiser who was killed, while in detention, by the Security Branch of the Apartheid South African Police Service after being held for 70 days without trial.
Makhanda, formerly known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about 110 kilometres (70 mi) northeast of Gqeberha and 130 kilometres (80 mi) southwest of East London. It is the largest town in the Makana Local Municipality, and the seat of the municipal council. It also hosts Rhodes University, the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court, the South African Library for the Blind (SALB), a diocese of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, and 6 South African Infantry Battalion. Furthermore, located approximately 3 km south-east of the town lies the world renowned Waterloo Farm, the only estuarine fossil site in the world from 360 million years ago with exceptional soft-tissue preservation.
Stephen Gray was a South African writer and critic.
Richard Gush (1789–1858) was an 1820 Settler. Originally from Beer, a village in Devon, England, he settled in Salem, near Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. His parents were Thomas and Mary Gush and his grandparents were James and Agnes Gush all of whom lived in Devon.
Colin James Bundy is a South African historian, former principal of Green Templeton College, Oxford and former director of SOAS University of London. Bundy was an influential member of a generation of historians who substantially revised understanding of South African history. In particular, he wrote on South Africa's rural past from a predominantly Marxist perspective, but also deploying Africanist and underdevelopment theories. Since the mid-1990s, however, Bundy has held a series of posts in university administration. Bundy is also a trustee of the Canon Collins Educational & Legal Assistance Trust.
The 1820 Settlers National Monument, which honours the contribution to South African society made by the British 1820 Settlers, overlooks Makhanda in the Eastern Cape. It commemorates the Anglo-Africans, as well as the English language, as much as the settlers themselves. The building was designed by John Sturrock, Sturrock was inspired by the work of Louis Kahn.
Marguerite Poland OIS is a South African writer and author of eleven children's books.
Troy Blacklaws is a writer and teacher from South Africa. He was born on 9 September 1965 in Pinetown, Natal Province. After his schooling at Paarl Boys' High School he studied at Rhodes University before being conscripted in to the South African Defence Force. After serving in the army Blacklaws began teaching English. He is currently teaching at the International School of Luxembourg.
Donald Alasdair Calum Maclennan was a South African poet, critic, playwright and English professor.
Nathaniel James Merriman was the third Bishop of Grahamstown from 1871 until his death.
Marda Vanne was a South African actress who found fame in London.
Alastair James Kerr was an Advocate of the High Court of South Africa, Professor Emeritus and Fellow at Rhodes University, and one of South Africa's legal scholars.
The San religion is the traditional religion and mythology of the San people. It is poorly attested due to their interactions with Christianity.
Frederick York St Leger was the Irish founder of the Cape Times newspaper in South Africa, and an Anglican priest.
The Revd Professor Peter Tshobisa Mtuze is a poet, priest and academic. He worked as an interpreter in the law courts of the old South Africa, a radio announcer, a salesperson for a publishing company, a civil servant in the homeland government structures, a lecturer at Unisa, an Editor in Chief of the Greater Dictionary of isiXhosa at Fort Hare, before joining Rhodes University as Professor and Head of the isiXhosa Department.
Christopher Michael "Zithulele" Mann was a South African poet.
John August Ion Agar-Hamilton was a South African historian and Anglican priest. He was born in Cairo to Scottish parents who migrated to Transvaal Colony in 1906. He studied at Pretoria Boys High School and Transvaal University College, whence he obtained a BA in 1914. He may also have studied at the University of the Cape of Good Hope and Keble College, Oxford.
Charles Jonathan Driver, usually known as Jonty Driver, was a South African anti-apartheid activist, political prisoner, educationalist, poet and writer.
Lydia Lindeque, born Rachel Alida du Toit, was a South African actor of Afrikaner descent. Initially known by the stage name Alida du Toit, she started touring at the age of seventeen with Paul de Groot's acting company. Soon adopting the name Lydia Lindeque, she worked with many stars of the era over the following decades, including Taubie Kushlick in 1958. She first performed in English in 1943, in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, and, in 1945, travelled to Egypt and Italy to direct stage plays for the South African Army troops stationed there. She was married to the playwright Uys Krige in 1937, later separating and marrying John Mantel. After retiring in 1976, she died in Andorra in 1997.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
