Open Society Mourns Breyten Breytenbach, Anti-Apartheid Activist
NEW YORK—The Open Society Foundations mourn the passing of Breyten Breytenbach in Paris yesterday at the age of 85.
A fearless South African anti-apartheid activist, poet, novelist, and artist, Breytenbach was imprisoned and forced into self-imposed exile, but never deterred from his outspoken criticism of the apartheid government. His writing and activism had a profound impact on the political landscape in South Africa in the 1980s.
Breytenbach’s relationship with Open Society and with George Soros goes back decades. He is widely credited as one of the architects, with Van Zyl Slabbert and Alex Borain, of the historic Dakar Conference in 1987 with support from George Soros. This watershed meeting between members of the Institute for Democratic Alternatives in South Africa—later the Institute for Democracy in Africa (IDASA)—and the African National Congress (ANC), generated crucial momentum toward a peaceful transition to a free South Africa.
The conference led to talks between the apartheid government with Nelson Mandela, and Mandela’s eventual meeting with P. W. Botha in 1989, and played an important role in the transition to a post-apartheid state. It also catalyzed the establishment of the pro-democracy Gorée Institute located off the coast of Dakar, which Breytenbach was deeply involved with for decades.
IDASA would go on to host the nascent Open Society Foundation for South Africa which went on to advance open society values and initiatives for more than 30 years.
