“Achmat was a change agent … he was a provocateur … It wasn’t just armchair change; he was actively involved in helping shape the change. To me, that’s where I see his legacy…He used his writing as an enabler for change. His work with non-government agencies, as an enabler for change, but it was always about the change.”

Abbas Dangor, Achmat’s younger brother

“He didn’t want to be remembered by the titles he had … He wanted to be remembered for his literary work … So, when you think about Achmat Dangor … you’re thinking about Achmat Dangor, the author and the poet … he would want to be remembered as someone who dared write about things which people weren’t writing about, who placed his literary craft in the centre of everything.”

Justine Dangor, Achmat’s daughter

“Achmat was never one thing or another. He was a very subtle combination of qualities that you don’t normally find together. I found him quite reticent, he was often quiet, but he was also articulate, and assertive in certain ways … and did not shy away from saying difficult things. … he’d want his activism, and the political or social work of different kinds that he did across his whole life, to be reflected alongside the writing, because I don’t think he saw those things as separate … Whatever the relationship is between the two sides of his working life, I think both should be reflected.”

Ivan Vladislavić, Achmat’s colleague, friend and editor of Achmat’s books Kafka’s Curse and Bitter Fruit

 

“Achmat was so multi-talented … he had a stamp in the humanitarian sector through the Mandela legacy organisations he worked through, every one of them. His political work that he did with Kagiso Trust … his literary work. You’re talking about an individual that was so talented in different sectors and different areas of life and that legacy is not just one (sector).”

Maeline Engelbrecht, Achmat’s PA at the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund

“Achmat was a man of remarkable humility in light of what he accomplished in his life. He rarely sought the spotlight, he never was a part of any sort of self-aggrandising, self-celebratory activity … He deflected approbation and compliments, so I think he would want his legacy to be memorialised in a way that reflected those qualities, the qualities of humility and kindness, but again just something that would be bold as well.”

Darren Walker, Achmat’s colleague at the Ford Foundation