Christopher Michael "Zithulele" Mann
(1948 – 10 March 2021) was a South African poet.
Biography
Chris Mann was born in
Port Elizabeth
Gqeberha ( , ), formerly named Port Elizabeth, and colloquially referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipal ...
in 1948 and went to
Diocesan College
The Diocesan College (commonly known as Bishops) is a private, English medium, boarding and day high school for boys situated in the suburb of Rondebosch in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The school was established o ...
(Bishops) in
Rondebosch
Rondebosch is one of the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa. It is primarily a residential suburb, with shopping and business districts as well as the main campus of the University of Cape Town.
History
Four years after the first Dutch ...
,
Cape Town
Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...
. He studied English and Philosophy at the
University of the Witwatersrand
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The universit ...
, and went to
Oxford University
The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
as a
Rhodes Scholar
The Rhodes Scholarship is an international Postgraduate education, postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world.
Esta ...
where he was awarded an MA in English Language and Literature. He also studied African Oral Literature at the
School of Oriental and African Studies
The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area ...
in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
.
From 1977 to 1980 he held a lecturer post in the English Department at
Rhodes University
Rhodes University () is a public research university located in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province.
Established in 1904, Rhodes University is the prov ...
in
Grahamstown
Makhanda, formerly known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 75,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Gqeberha and southwest of East London. It is the largest town in the Makana Local Mun ...
,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
. From 1980 to 1995 he worked with an NGO, The
Valley Trust at KwaNyuswa outside
Durban
Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal.
Situated on the east coast of South ...
, where he received his
isiZulu
Zulu ( ), or isiZulu as an endonym, is a Southern Bantu language of the Nguni branch spoken in, and indigenous to, Southern Africa. Nguni dialects are regional or social varieties of the Nguni language, distinguished by vocabulary, pronunciatio ...
nickname, Zithulele, meaning "the quiet one."
After that, after which he returned to Rhodes University where he was a professor of poetry at the Institute for the Study of English in Africa. He was founder and convenor of Wordfest, a national multilingual festival of
South African languages
At least thirty-five languages are spoken in South Africa, twelve of which are official languages of South Africa: Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, South African Sign Language, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Afrikaans, Xhosa, Zulu, and English, which ...
and literature with a developmental emphasis.
A native English speaker, Mann was also conversant in
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...
, isiZulu and
isiXhosa
Xhosa ( , ), formerly spelled ''Xosa'' and also known by its local name ''isiXhosa'', is a Bantu language, indigenous to Southern Africa and one of the official languages of South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Xhosa is spoken as a first language ...
. He performed his work at festivals, schools, churches, universities and conferences in South Africa.
He was married to artist
Julia Skeen
Julia may refer to:
People
*Julia (given name), including a list of people with the name
* Julia (surname), including a list of people with the name
*Julia gens, a patrician family of Ancient Rome
*Julia (clairvoyant) (fl. 1689), lady's maid of Q ...
.
Works
Books
* ''First Poems'', 1979. Cape Town: Bateleur Press.
* ''A New Book of South African Verse'', 1979. With
Guy Butler. Cape Town: OUP.
*
*
*
*
* with Julia Skeen
* ''The Roman Centurion’s Good Friday'', 1999. Grahamstown:
Cathedral of St Michael & St George.
*
* ''In Praise of the Shades'', 2003. Grahamstown:
Cathedral of St Michael and St George.
* ''Walking on Gravity'', 2004. Grahamstown:
Cathedral of St Michael and St George.
* ''Thuthula'', 2005. Johannesburg: Ravan & PanMacmillan.
* ''Beautiful Lofty Things'', 2005. Grahamstown:
Cathedral of St Michael and St George.
* ''Walking on Gravity'', 2005. In: Dante in South Africa. Cullinan, Patrick and Watson, Stephen (Eds.). Cape Town: Centre for Creative Writing, University of Cape Town.
* ''Lifelines'', 2006. With: Skeen, Julia and Craig, Adrian. Pietermaritzburg: UKZN Press.
* with Julia Skeen
* ''Small Town Big Voice'', 2012. Ed. Renard, Andrew. Port Elizabeth: SACEE.
* ''Rudiments of Grace'', 2014. Grahamstown:
Cathedral of St Michael and St George.
* ''Epiphanies'', 2017. Grahamstown.
Cathedral of St Michael and St George.
* ''Heraclitus in Africa''. forthcoming.
Plays in verse and multimedia poetry productions
* ''The Sand Labyrinth''. 1980 National Student Drama Festival.
* ''Mahoon’s Testimony''. Broadcast on SAfm in 1998, rebroadcast 2007.
* ''Frail Care''. Broadcast on SAfm in 1997 and re-broadcast in 1999 and 2007.
* ''The Crux of Being''. 1999 National Arts Festival Fringe.
* ''In Praise of the Shades''. 2003 National Arts Festival Fringe.
* ''Thuthula''. 2003 National Arts Festival Main Programme.
* ''Walking on Gravity''. 2004 National Arts Festival Fringe.
* ''Beautiful Lofty Things''. 2005 National Arts Festival Fringe production.
* ''Lifelines''. 2006 National Arts Festival Fringe poetry performance production.
* ''LifeSongs''. 2007 National Arts Festival Fringe installation.
* ''Epiphanies''. 2008. National Arts Festival Fringe installation.
* ''LifeSongs''. 2011. National English Literary Museum installation.
* ''The Ballad of Dirk de Bruin'', 2014. National Arts Festival Fringe.
* Anxiety and Grace. With Julia Skeen. 2016. National Arts Festival Fringe and Spiritfest.
*Epiphanies. With Julia Skeen. 2018. National Arts Festival Fringe and Spiritfest.
Articles
*
*
* with Ileana Dimitriu
*
*
*"Points of Illumination: Wordfest South Africa This Year and Next."
Commentary on Mann's Work
Mann's work has received critical consideration in journals such as
* ''The English Academy Review'';
* ''English in Africa'';
* ''Shakespeare in Southern Africa'';
* ''Scrutiny2''; and
* ''Literator''.
Awards
*
Newdigate Prize
Sir Roger Newdigate's Prize, more commonly the Newdigate Prize, is awarded by the University of Oxford for the Best Composition in English verse by an undergraduate student. It was founded in 1806 as a memorial to Sir Roger Newdigate (1719–1 ...
for Poetry while a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford.
* Olive Schreiner Prize for South African Poetry in English.
* South African Performing Arts Councils’ Playwright Award.
* Hon.D.Litt. University of Durban-Westville, now University of KwaZulu-Natal.
* Eastern Cape Premier’s Award for Literature.
* First Professor of Poetry, Rhodes University.
* English Academy of South Africa Thomas Pringle Award for Poetry.
* Mann's 2014 play ''The Ballad of Dirk de Bruin'' which premiered at the
National Arts Festival
The National Arts Festival (NAF) is an annual festival of performing arts in Makhanda, South Africa. It is the largest arts festival on the African continent and one of the largest performing arts festivals in the world by visitor numbers.
The ...
was awarded a Silver
Standard Bank
Standard Bank (officially Standard Bank Group Limited) is the largest bank in Africa, as well as the continent's biggest lender by assets.
The company's corporate headquarters, Standard Bank Centre, is located in Johannesburg, Gauteng. The ...
Ovation Award for "artistic innovation, excellence and the exploration of new performance styles".
* Honorary Artist in Residence, Grahamstown Cathedral (2017–2021)
*Guest poet, Incroci di civiltà international poetry festival, Venice 2019
*English Academy of South Africa Gold Medal 2019
References
Citations
Sources
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External links
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Biography, KZN Literary Tourism*
Articles, Mail and Guardian
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mann, Chris
1948 births
2021 deaths
20th-century South African poets
Academic staff of Rhodes University
Alumni of SOAS University of London
Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford
English-language poets
Linguists from South Africa
People from Gqeberha
University of the Witwatersrand alumni
South African male poets
South African Rhodes Scholars
Writers from the Eastern Cape
21st-century South African poets
20th-century South African male writers
21st-century South African male writers
South African people of British descent
Alumni of Diocesan College, Cape Town