Once released, Dennis Brutus was forced to flee South Africa. While in exile, Professor Brutus used culture and sports to shed light to ordinary citizens in the West—whose governments were continuing sporting ties with South Africa—on the oppressive apartheid system. Brutus led the successful banning of South Africa from the Olympic Games in 1970, and the international movement to boycott matches with Springbok, the national rugby team, in the 1970s and early 1980s.  The sports and cultural boycott campaign isolated South Africa and was an important catalyst to successful economic measures imposed against the regime, particularly the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 in the U.S.

From challenging the apartheid government to fighting poverty to raising awareness of the debt crisis, Brutus showed us that culture is an important political weapon which can unite the world for social justice.  At the heart of Dennis Brutus’s force for change were his words. His words were our moral conscience and memory:

From an event in 2009 TransAfrica Forum co-sponsored with other solidarity organizations commemorating the Day of the African Child, Dennis Brutus via webcam from Durban, South Africa.  The poem was first read in Caracas, Venezuela in October 2008.

Dennis Brutus, may you rest in peace.