<html>
<body>
<h1><b>Dennis Brutus 1924-2009<br>
</b></h1><h3><b>The Man Who Would Reclaim
Sports</b></h3><font size=3>December 31, 2009 By <b>Dave Zirin</b> <br>
<a href="http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/23506" eudora="autourl">
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/23506<br><br>
</a>It was 1976, and the Summer Olympics in Montreal had improbably
become ground zero in the struggle against apartheid. Several dozen
African nations threatened to boycott if the International Olympic
Committee dared allow South Africa to be a part of the games. Montreal's
athletic jamboree was in jeopardy and the cause of all the tumult,
according to Sports Illustrated, was a diminutive South African poet the
magazine called "the Dark Genius of Dissent." His name was
Dennis Brutus. Brutus organized entire blocks of the world around a
simple question: how can the Olympics say they stand for
"brotherhood" and fair play if apartheid nations could join the
festivities? It worked. The "Dark Genius" shamed the shameless
and changed international sports forever. Over the course of decades, as
a dissident, refugee, and political prisoner, Brutus advanced this simple
athletic argument. The organizations he founded, the South African Sports
Association (SASA) in 1958 and its successor, the South African Nonracial
Olympic Committee, (SANROC) used it to hammer critical nails in
apartheid's coffin. <br><br>
For Brutus, this work in the sports world was merely an extension of a
lifetime organizing for racial and economic justice. His death on
December 26th after a long bout with cancer has created an incalculable
void. Not merely because he was beloved as the "singing voice of the
South African Liberation Movement"; not merely because Brutus held a
reservoir of political lessons; but because he remained a tireless
agitator for justice. Days before the recent international climate talks
in Copenhagen, the ailing Brutus called the proceedings a sham, saying,
"We are in serious difficulty all over the planet. We are going to
say to the world: There's too much of profit, too much of greed, too much
of suffering by the poor. ... The people of the planet must be in
action." <br><br>
He also never stopped holding up the dreamy ideals of sport against
reality's harsh light. Up until the final days of his life, while the
leaders of South Africa celebrated the coming arrival of the 2010 World
Cup, Brutus was in the streets, protesting the demolition of low income
housing to make way for soccer's international party. In December 2007,
he publicly rejected induction in the South African Sports Hall of Fame,
saying to 1,000 onlookers, <br><br>
<i>"Being inducted to a sports hall of fame is an honor under
most circumstances. In my case the honor is for helping rid South African
sport of racism, making it open to all. So I cannot be party to an event
where unapologetic racists are also honored, or to join a hall of fame
alongside those who flourished under racist sport. Their inclusion is a
deception because of their unfair advantage, as so many talented black
athletes were excluded from sport opportunities. Moreover, this hall
ignores the fact that some sportspersons and administrators defended,
supported and legitimized apartheid. There are indeed some famous South
Africans who still belong in a sports hall of infamy. They still think
they are sports heroes, without understanding and making amends for the
context in which they became so heroic, namely a crime against humanity.
So, case closed. It is incompatible to have those who championed racist
sport alongside its genuine victims. It's time-indeed long past time-for
sports truth, apologies and reconciliation."</i> <br><br>
I had the privilege to interview Brutus extensively three years ago about
why he came to see sports as an arena to fight for justice. His answer
was, I have come to learn, typical Dennis Brutus: refusing to be anything
less than blunt and provocative. I asked him whether he agreed with me
that sports could still be a lever to change the world. Instead of
cheerleading the notion, he said to me, <br><br>
"My own sense is that sports has less capacity now to change society
then it had before. For instance, the degree that sports has become
commercialized. The degree that your loyalty is no longer to a club
like it used to be because guys are bought and sold like so many
slaves....The other thing that really scares me is the way that sport is
used to divert people's attention. Critical political issues in
their own lives. Their living conditions. The Romans used to
say this is the way to run an empire. Give them bread give them
circuses. Now they don't even give you bread and the circuses are
lousy..." <br><br>
But amidst his critiques, Brutus was never a pessimist, only a
"critical optimist." How else to explain that in his next
breath, he also said to me, <br><br>
"We must however realize that the power and reach of sports is
undeniable...It's kind of a megaphone. People will hear [political
athletes] because their voices are amplified. Not always in a very
informed way. Of course when there are exceptions, it can produce
magic: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for instance or Muhammad Ali. So it does help
and they do have that megaphone: but all-important is content.
All-important is politics. That is decisive." <br><br>
There are ways to honor Dennis Brutus and his memory. Read aloud his
poetry at the first opportunity. Keep his words alive to "produce
magic" for a new generation. Keep fighting for a global justice. And
keep fighting to reclaim sports. As people are criminalized in Vancouver
to make way for the 2010 Olympics, as the poor are dispossessed in the
name of the 2010 World Cup, we should proudly claim Dennis's well-worn
place at the march, never allowing those in power the comfort of
indifference. As Dennis said to me when I asked him how he could stay so
active into his 80s, "This is no time for laurels. This is no time
for rest." <br><br>
[To purchase Dennis's brilliant collection, Poetry and Protest, go to the
below link. <br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF">
<a href="http://www.haymarketbooks.org/pb/Poetry-and-Protest-A-Dennis-Brutus-Reader">
http://www.haymarketbooks.org/pb/Poetry-and-Protest-A-Dennis-Brutus-Reader</a>
</font><font size=3> <br><br>
[Dave Zirin is the sports correspondent for the Nation magazine. Reach
him at
</font><a href="mailto:edgeofsports@gmail.com">
<font size=3 color="#0000FF">edgeofsports@gmail.com</a></font>
<font size=3>] <br><br>
<br><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF">
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.Freedomarchives.org</a></font><font size=3> </font></body>
</html>