Richard Moore Rive (1 March 1931 – 4 June 1989) was a South African writer and academic, who was from

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 ...

Biography

Rive was born on 1 March 1931 in Caledon Street in the working-class

Coloured Coloureds () are multiracial people in South Africa, Namibia and, to a smaller extent, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Their ancestry descends from the interracial mixing that occurred between Europeans, Africans and Asians. Interracial mixing in South ...

residential area

District Six District Six (Afrikaans: ''Distrik Ses'') is a residential neighborhood in Cape Town, South Africa, located next to the city's Cape Town CBD, CBD. In 1959, people of color were banned from the area and most of them were resettled in Gugulet ...

.Geoffrey V. Davis
''Voices of Justice and Reason''
Editions Rodopi, 2003, pp. 95-100. His father was African, and his mother was Coloured."Richard (Moore) Rive"
''Dictionary of Literary Biography''. Rive was given the latter classification under

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

. Rive went to St Mark's Primary School and

Trafalgar High School Trafalgar High School is a government-funded co-educational secondary day school, located in Trafalgar, West Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. It officially opened in 1964 after running classes on the original Trafalgar Primary School grounds ...

,Paul Frailey
"Richard Rive"
Blackpast.org, retrieved 13 August 2014. both in District Six. In 1951 he went to Hewat College of Education in

Athlone Athlone (; ) is a town on the border of County Roscommon and County Westmeath, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is located on the River Shannon near the southern shore of Lough Ree. It is the second most populous town in the Midland Region, Ir ...

, where he qualified as a teacher. He was a prominent sportsman (a South African

hurdles Hurdling is the act of jumping over an obstacle at a high speed or in a sprint. In the early 19th century, hurdlers ran at and jumped over each hurdle (sometimes known as 'burgles'), landing on both feet and checking their forward motion. Today ...

champion while a student) and a school sports administrator. He acquired a

BA degree A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

from the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

in 1962. In 1963 he was given a scholarship organised by

Es'kia Mphahlele Es'kia Mphahlele (17 December 1919 – 27 October 2008) was a South African writer, educationist, artist and activist celebrated as the Father of African Humanism and one of the founding figures of modern African literature. He was given the ...

, the editor of ''

Drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

'' magazine, in which Rive published some of his early writing. His first novel, ''Emergency'' was published in 1964. In 1965 Rive was awarded a

Fulbright scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

. He earned an MA degree (1966) from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, and a Ph.D. from

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 ...

(1974). His doctoral thesis on

Olive Schreiner Olive Schreiner (24 March 1855 – 11 December 1920) was a South African author, anti-war campaigner and intellectual. She is best remembered today for her novel '' The Story of an African Farm'' (1883), which has been highly acclaimed. It dea ...

would be published posthumously, in 1996. Rive was for many years Head of the English Department at Hewat College. He was a visiting professor at several overseas universities, including

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1987. He also delivered guest lectures at more than 50 universities on four continents. A firm believer in anti-racism, Rive decided to stay in his country with the hope of influencing its development there. He lived comfortably, in a new California-style home in Windsor Park in

Kraaifontein Kraaifontein is a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa and is located on the north-eastern outskirts of the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality. The name originated from the large number of crows (''Kraai'' in Afrikaans) that ...

. In 1981 he told ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'': "I've got everything I want - except the franchise. And I'm not contented." He was stabbed to death at his home in Cape Town in 1989, when he was 58 years old.

Writing

Rive initially published his stories in South African magazines such as ''Drum'' and ''Fighting Talk''. His collection ''African Songs'' was published in 1963 by Seven Seas Books. He edited anthologies for Heinemann's

African Writers Series The African Writers Series (AWS) is a collection of books written by African novelists, poets and politicians. Published by Heinemann (publisher), Heinemann, 359 books appeared in the series between 1962 and 2003. The series has provided an int ...

: the short story anthology ''Quartet'' (1963) - containing stories by Alex La Guma, James Matthews, Alf Wannenburgh and Rive himself - and the prose anthology ''Modern African Prose'' (1964). His short story "The Bench", for which he won a prize, is still anthologised. "The Bench" takes the well known story of

Rosa Parks Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an American civil rights activist. She is best known for her refusal to move from her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus, in defiance of Jim Crow laws, which sparke ...

and sets it in South Africa. He also wrote three novels that were published in his lifetime. ''Emergency'' (1964) was set against the Sharpeville massacre. ''Buckingham Palace District Six'' was published in 1986 and turned into a musical by the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town. Rive also published an autobiography entitled ''Writing Black'' in 1981. Rive's last novel, ''Emergency Continued'', was completed two weeks before his death.

Honours

On 23 August 2013, at the Aziz Hassim Literary Awards held in

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 ...

, Rive and two other esteemed South African authors, Ronnie Govender and

Don Mattera Donato Francisco Mattera (29 December 1935 – 18 July 2022), better known as Don Mattera, was a South African poet and author. Overview Born in 1935 in Western Native Township (now Westbury), Johannesburg, Union of South Africa, Mattera g ...

, were honoured for their contributions to the fight against apartheid through literature. The authors all reflected on non-racial enclaves in South Africa during that era: Rive focused on District Six, Govender on

Cato Manor Cato Manor is a settlement located from the city centre of Durban, South Africa. It was formed when Indian market gardeners came to settle in the area some time after it was given to George Christopher Cato in 1865, who was the first mayor of ...

, and Mattera on

Sophiatown Sophiatown , also known as Sof'town or Kofifi, is a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. Sophiatown was a poor multi-racial area and a black cultural hub that was destroyed under apartheid. It produced some of South Africa's most famous writ ...

Bibliography

Novels

* ''Emergency'' (1964) * ''Buckingham Palace, District Six'' (1986) * ''Writing Black'' (1981) * ''Emergency Continued'' (1991)

Short story collections

* ''African Songs'' (1963) * ''Advance, Retreat : Selected Short Stories'' (1983)

References

External links

"Richard Rive"
South African History Online * Shaun Viljoen
"Richard Rive: A Skewed Biography"
PhD thesis,

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 ...

, 2006 {{DEFAULTSORT:Rive, Richard Moore 1989 deaths 1931 births South African male short story writers South African male novelists South African murder victims People murdered in South Africa South African LGBTQ novelists 20th-century South African novelists 20th-century South African short story writers 20th-century South African male writers Alumni of Trafalgar High School (Cape Town) 20th-century South African LGBTQ people University of Cape Town alumni Columbia University alumni Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Deaths by stabbing in South Africa