Ronnie Govender

Sathiseelan Gurilingam "Ronnie" Govender (16 May 193429 April 2021) was a South African playwright, theatre director and activist known for his community theatre efforts. He was known as a pioneer of Indian South African theatre in the country. Some of his notable works included Black Chin White Chin, Song of the Atman, and At the Edge and Other Cato Manor Stories. At the Edge won the 1997 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for best first book, Africa.

Govender received the government of South Africa's Order of Ikhamanga in 2008 for his contributions to democracy, peace and justice in the country through theatre.

Early life

Sathiseelan Gurilingam Govender was born on 16 May 1934 in Cato Manor, an Indian neighbourhood of Durban.

Career

After finishing his primary and secondary education, Govender began studying at the University of Cape Town (UCT), and took on a job as a sportswriter for the New Age to pay his fees. However, the newspaper was closed by the authorities one year after Govender joined. Unable to support himself in Cape Town, he returned to Durban and entered Springfield Training College to become a teacher. In 1964, with Muthal Naidoo and Bennie Bersee, he founded a theatre company called the Shah Theatre Academy in opposition to the liberal theatre of the day. He went on to write other plays, including The Lahnee's Pleasure (1972), one of South Africa's longest-running plays. Although Govender received invitations to tour The Lahnee's Pleasure abroad and in mainstream South African theatres, he refused as part of the cultural boycott of apartheid. His short story collection At the Edge and Other Cato Manor Stories won the 1997 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for best first book, Africa. Critics have described Govender's writing style as unadorned, and have said that his works evoke the identity of the Indian community with its vitality, humour, and resilience in a difficult environment. His works have been considered important in constructing the South African national identity.

The South African government awarded him the Order of Ikhamanga in 2008 "for [his] excellent contribution to democracy and justice in South Africa through the genre of theatre". In 2014, the Durban University of Technology also awarded Govender an honorary doctorate "for his contribution to literature and the arts in general as well as his contribution to democracy, peace and justice in South Africa through theatre".

Govender died on 29 April 2021, from age-related illnesses. He was 86.

Works

An Edition of the Collected Plays of Ronnie Govender, University of Natal, 1991

At the Edge and Other Cato Manor Stories, Manx, 1996, Song of the Atman, Jacana Media, 2006, Interplay: A Collection of South African Plays, MANX, 2006, Black Chin White Chin, HarperCollins, 2007, In the Manure: Memories and Reflections, David Philip, 2008,