South African poet and former political prisoner Dennis Brutus, who fought apartheid in words and deeds and remained an activist well after the fall of his country's racist system, has died. He was 85. Brutus' publisher, Chicago-based Haymarket Books, said the writer died in his sleep at his home in Cape Town Saturday. Brutus was an anti-apartheid activist jailed at Robben Island with Nelson Mandela in the mid-1960s. His activism led Olympic officials to ban South Africa from competition from 1964 until apartheid ended nearly 30 years later. Born in 1924 in Zimbabwe, Brutus was the son of South African teachers who moved back to their native country when he was still a boy. He majored in English at Fort Hare University and taught at several South African high schools. By his early 20s, he was politically involved and helped create the South African Sports Association, formed in protest against the official white sports association. Brutus was banned from South Africa in 1961, fled to Mozambique, but was deported back to South Africa and nearly murdered when shot as he attempted to escape police custody and forced to wait for an ambulance that would accept blacks. Brutus emigrated to the United States in 1971, but his legal troubles did not end. The Reagan administration changed the policy on political refugees, making it more difficult for them to remain in the US. He taught literature and African studies at Northwestern University and the University of Pittsburgh, a distinctive figure in old age with his flowing white hair and beard, engaged in protests against world financial organizations and in calls for stronger action against global warming. He received numerous honorary prizes, including a lifetime achievement award from South Africa's Department of Arts and Culture.
