South African playwright, novelist, actor and director Athol Fugard, best known for some of the most prolific theatre works, has died aged 92.

The life of Athol Fugard

Athol Fugard (born 11 June 1932) is a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director, renowned for his powerful critiques of apartheid and racial injustice. Raised in Port Elizabeth, he studied at the University of Cape Town before leaving to travel and work, experiences that deeply influenced his writing.

His plays, including The Blood Knot (1961), Sizwe Banzi is Dead (1972), and The Island (1973), often explored themes of oppression, identity, and human dignity. Despite government censorship, his work gained international recognition and played a crucial role in highlighting apartheid’s injustices.

Following the fall of apartheid, Fugard continued to write, focusing on reconciliation and memory in works such as Valley Song (1995) and The Train Driver (2010). Honoured with numerous awards, including a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement, he remains one of the most influential voices in modern theatre.

Athol Fugard tribute — Athol Fugard and Zakes Mokae, ‘The Blood Knot’ (1961)

A special tribute by Dr. John Kani

“It was in 1965 when everything looked so very bleak in my life living in New Brighton, Port Elizabeth. The Eastern Cape was a wasteland of pain and suffering. All the people we knew were either in detention or in exile or killed.

As young men we were standing by eagerly to be secretly shuttled out of the country to join Umkhonto We Sizwe to train to be the soldiers that would liberate our country, our South Africa. A friend of mine, Fats Bokholan, told me about a group of actors called the Serpent Players Drama Group who were performing plays in the township. He asked whether I would like to join the Group. He told me that they were doing a play called Antigone by Sophocles. This excite me so I said yes, yes.

I arrived at the place where this group was rehearsing. I knew most of the people in the room except for a white guy who was also with them. I was a bit surprised that these militant guys, who I knew from New Brighton, were actually working with a white person! Then Fats started to introduce me to everyone and finally to the white guy. Fats said ‘John, this is Athol. Athol, this is John’. That was the beginning of a whole new chapter in my life – and a life-long friendship.

Athol, Winston Ntshona and I worked together through the very difficult times of the 1960s, creating and performing in plays that examined the conditions under which Black people lived during Apartheid. Of course, this immediately attracted the interest of the Security Police who hounded the Group’s every performance and even extended to our private lives. However, through all these difficult times Athol stayed with us.

In 1972 Winston, Athol and I created Sizwe Banzi Is Dead and in 1973 together we created The Island and as they say ‘the rest is history’.

Athol was my brother and my comrade in the Struggle for the liberation of our country – and my friends for life. No one can tell the story of protest theatre without mentioning the names of Athol Fugard, Winston Ntshona and myself.

Now, with their deaths, I must accept that my two beautiful friends, Winston and Athol, are gone. Now I feel so alone. My only comfort are the memories of these two giants of the South African theatre and the struggle for a better life for all.

Athol believed in me and my anger and I believed in him and his cool temperament and that the use of words is a more powerful weapon of change.

I will miss him very much.

Athol, you have been an inspiration to your fellow theatre practitioners your entire life. You are a giant of South African storytelling. Your words and works have impacted so many peoples’ lives – inspiring them, uplifting them and educating them.

Hamba Qhawe lamaQhawe. Your work is done. Rest in peace my true and loyal friend.”

-Dr John Kani OIS OBE

This tribute was shared for publishing by the Market Theatre Foundation