Claude Lévi-Strauss

23 November 1908 – 31 October 2009

A good innings.

Obituary at The Guardian.

Winston Mankunku Ngozi

1943 – 13 October 2009

A poem by Kelwyn Sole from his debut collection, The Blood of Our Silence (Ravan, 1987):

Mankunku

Dark golden boat
on a sea
far away, rock with me
rock with me:

deep-throated bird
gentle me home
past the mud-lined street
where thoughts stick fast
and children pick rubbish
hungrily

the night flakes notes
from the scalp of my sorrow -

hide in my pillow
and cry for me

———————

Mankunku playing “Yakhal’ Inkomo”

Profile of Mankunku at music.org.za

Short obituary by Ryland Fisher.

Alex van Heerden

23 November 1974 – 7 January 2009

Frontier Rogue.

Tribute page at WhatsOnSA.

‘Sissie my kind‘, ‘Vrou van Samaria‘, courtesy of Derek Gripper.

Miriam Makeba

4 March 1932 – 10 November 2008

Mail & Guardian.

BBC.

Es’kia Mphahlele

17 December 1919 – 27 October 2008.

Obituaries:

Book Southern Africa (BookSA)

The Independent

RIP John Matshikiza, Bheki Mseleku

John Matshikiza, 1954 – 15 September 2008. Obituaries at The Guardian and Mail & Guardian.

Bheki Mseleku, 3 March 1955 – 9 September 2008. Obituary at The Guardian.

Mahmoud Darwish

15 March 1941 – 9 August 2008

Obituary at the Guardian.

“Where should we go after the last frontiers,
where should the birds fly after the last sky?”

Isaac Hayes

20 August 1942 – 10 August 2008

Obituary at the Guardian.

Official Website.

Aimé Cesairé

26 June 1913 – 17 April 2008

Obituary at The Times.

Alain Robbe-Grillet

18 August 1922 – 18 February 2008.

Obituary at Guardian and at BBC.