John Kani

Early and personal life

Kani was born on 30 August 1942 in New Brighton, Port Elizabeth, in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. In 1975, after appearing in Athol Fugard's anti-apartheid play Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, which he also co-wrote, in the United States, Kani returned to South Africa. There, he received a phone call saying that his father wanted to see him. On his way there, he was surrounded by police who beat him and left him for dead. His left eye was lost as a result of the incident, and he now wears a prosthesis which is technically a glass eye.

His son Atandwa is also an actor, who made his debut on U.S. television on the CW series Life Is Wild, and played a younger version of Kani's character T'Chaka in Black Panther.

Career

Kani joined The Serpent Players (a group of actors whose first performance was in the former snake pit of the zoo, hence the name) in Port Elizabeth in 1965 and helped to create many plays that went unpublished but were performed to a resounding reception.

These were followed by the more famous Sizwe Banzi is Dead and The Island, co-written with Athol Fugard and Winston Ntshona, in the early 1970s. Kani also received an Olivier Award nomination for his role in My Children! My Africa!

Kani's work has been widely performed around the world, including New York, where he and Winston Ntshona won a Tony Award in 1975 for Sizwe Banzi Is Dead (which ran for 159 performances) and The Island. These two plays were presented in repertory at the Edison Theatre for a total of 52 performances.

In 1987, Kani played Othello in a performance of William Shakespeare's play of the same name in South Africa, which was still under apartheid. "At least I'll be able to kiss Desdemona without leaving a smudge," he said then.

Nothing but the Truth (2002) was his debut as sole playwright and was first performed in the Market Theatre in Johannesburg. This play takes place in post-apartheid South Africa and does not concern the conflicts between whites and blacks, but the rift between blacks who stayed in South Africa to fight apartheid, and those who left only to return when the hated regime folded. It won the 2003 Fleur du Cap Awards for the best actor and best new South African play. In the same year, Kani was also awarded a special Obie Award for his extraordinary contribution to theatre in the United States.

Kani is executive trustee of the John Kani Theatre Foundation, founder and director of the John Kani Theatre Laboratory and chairman of the National Arts Council of SA. He starred as T'Chaka in the Marvel Studios blockbusters Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Black Panther (2018). The fact that Kani was a Xhosa native speaker led Chadwick Boseman, who played his onscreen son T'Challa, to make that Wakanda's language, and to learn whole scenes in Xhosa, although he had never studied the language before.

In 2019, Kani appeared in the Netflix film Murder Mystery where he played Colonel Ulenga. He then voiced Rafiki in The Lion King (the photorealistically animated remake of the Disney animated film).

Kani's play Kunene and the King, a co-production for the Royal Shakespeare Company and Fugard Theatre, was staged in the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, in 2019 before transferring back to Cape Town. Kani starred alongside Antony Sher.

Other recognition and awards

On 20 February 2010, Kani received a SAFTA Lifetime award. He has also received the Avanti Hall of Fame Award from the South African film, television, and advertising industries, an M-Net Plum award and a Clio award in New York. Other awards include the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation Award for the year 2000 and the Olive Schreiner Prize for 2005. He was voted 51st in the Top 100 Great South Africans in 2004.

In 2006, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Cape Town.

In 2013, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University appointed him an honorary Doctor of Philosophy.

In 2016, Kani received the national honour of the Order of Ikhamanga in Silver, for his "Excellent contributions to theatre and, through this, the struggle for a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa".

The main theatre of the Market Theatre complex in Newtown, Johannesburg, has been renamed The John Kani Theatre in his honour.

In 2020, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of the Witwatersrand.

In 2021, Kani was conferred as the Da Vinci Laureate by The Da Vinci Institute.

In 2023, he was awarded an Honorary OBE from British Government for services to drama.

Plays

• Sizwe Banzi is Dead (1972) (co-authored with Athol Fugard and Winston Ntshona)
• The Island (1973) (co-authored with Athol Fugard and Winston Ntshona)
• Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act (co-authored with Athol Fugard and Winston Ntshona)
• My Children My Africa! (actor)
• Nothing But the Truth (2002) (sole playwright)
• The Tempest (2008) (actor in the role of Caliban, at the Baxter Theatre, Cape Town; Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon; and tour of Richmond, Leeds, Bath, Nottingham, Sheffield)
• Missing (2014) (actor and sole playwright)
• Kunene and the King (2019) (actor and playwright)

Film and television

Drama

• Nothing But the Truth (2002)

References

References

1. (30 August 1943). "Bonisile John Kani (1943–)". The Presidency.
2. Britt, Donna. (26 September 1989). "Apartheid Through An Angry Lens". [[The Washington Post]].
3. Thakurdin, Karishma. (18 January 2018). "John Kani on Black Panther premiere: 'I knew we would introduce a different African'".
4. Ghignone, Giovanni. (2019-05-28). "Old is Gold: Dr John Kani".
5. Motswatswa, Kelebogile. (24 May 2019). "John Kani, the king of South African theatre". Mail & Guardian.
6. Sandomir, Richard. (5 August 2018). "Winston Ntshona, Tony-Winning South African Actor, Dies at 76". The New York Times.
7. "The big interview– DR John Kani".
8. "Tony Award-Winning South African Actor Winston Ntshona Dies at 76".
9. Ghignone, Giovanni. (2019-05-28). "Old is Gold: Dr John Kani".
10. (26 April 2014). ["From our archives] 20 bizarre apartheid moments | Opinion | Analysis | M&G".
11. (25 October 2011). "Nothing But the Truth".
12. "Bonisile John Kani".
13. (2010). "The Columbia Guide to South African Literature in English Since 1945". Columbia University Press.
14. (7 August 2017). "'Lion King' Rafiki Casting: John Kani, 'Civil War' Star, to Play Wise Baboon (Exclusive)".
15. "About the play | Kunene and the King | Royal Shakespeare Company".
16. "All the 2010 SAFTAs winners".
17. "In Conversation with Dr John Kani, Author, Actor, Director, Playwright".
18. (October 2010). "Honorary doctorates for June graduation". [[University of Cape Town]].
19. "Honorary Doctorates". Nelson Mandela University.
20. (17 April 2013). "Legendary actor and playwright John Kani has been awarded an honorary doctorate". SABC News.
21. (10 April 2013). "NMMU to honour John Kani". Port Elizabeth Herald.
22. "The Main Theatre is renamed to honour Dr. John Kani".
23. "Wits confers honorary doctorates on John Kani and Dr Isidor Segal".
24. (2023). "Honorary awards to foreign nationals in 2023". Gov.UK.
25. Galuppo, Mia. (24 January 2022). "Jodie Turner-Smith, Mark Strong Join Netflix's 'Murder Mystery 2'".