THE ERAS – INTRODUCTION
“The writer is compelled by his or her art to take that past [a country’s history] along. History is a burden that fiction writers bear more than historians. Novelists have to try and make sense of that past while historians only have to record it.”
Achmat Dangor, undated interview for “Stilos”
Achmat at the NMF’s Malibongwe dialogue, May 2007. John Hogg / Nelson Mandela Foundation
The Eras – An Introduction
We have split the life and times of Achmat Dangor into eight eras according to his work as an activist and his career. Although reference is made to Achmat’s writing in these eras we have created a separate section which focusses exclusively on Achmat’s writing, books and awards.
Explore Achmat Dangor’s extraordinary career and the context in which he lived by clicking on the boxes below or access via the menu bar at the top of the page.
Era 1 - 1948-1965
Era 2 - 1966-1979
Era 3 - 1980-1985
United Democratic Front, Writers’ Forum, Waiting for Leila and Bulldozer, 1980-1985
Era 4 - 1986 - 1992
Kagiso Trust, Congress of South African Writers, Majiet: A Play and The Z-Town Trilogy, 1986-1992
Era 5 - 1993-2001
Writer in Residence City University New York, National Rural Development Forum, Independent Development Trust, Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and Kafka’s Curse, 1993-2001
Era 6 - 2001-2006
Senior Fellow Synergos Foundation, consultant Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative , UNAIDS, and Bitter Fruit shortlisted for Booker Prize, 2001-2006
Era 7 - 2007-2015
Return home, Nelson Mandela Foundation, Mandela Rhodes Foundation, Ford Foundation, Strange Pilgrimages and lifetime achievement award, 2007-2015
Era 8 - 2016-2020
Retirement, Johannesburg Review of Books, Dikeledi: Child of Tears No More, and an incomplete manuscript, 2016-2020
