Maimane, Arthur 1932-

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MAIMANE, Arthur 1932-

PERSONAL:

Born October 5, 1932, in South Africa; married; children: five daughters.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—c/o Author Mail, Kwela Books, P.O. Box 6525, Roggebaai, 8012 South Africa.

CAREER:

Drum Magazine, journalist, 1952-56; Golden City Post, journalist, 1956-68; Drum (West Africa), journalist, 1958-60; Ghana Radio Times, journalist, 1960-61; Fleet Street Radio and Television, journalist; British Broadcasting Corporation, London, England, writer and producer; Independent TV News (ITN), senior writer; Star (newspaper), Cape Town, South Africa, managing editor, 1994-97; writer and media consultant, 1997—.

MEMBER:

Society of Authors.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Commonwealth Radio Play, first prize, 1964, for The Opportunity; Pringle Award for Creative Writing, English Academy of South Africa, 1978.

WRITINGS:

Victims: A Novel, Allison and Busby (London, England), 1976.

Hate No More (novel), Global (London, England), 2000.

Author of radio plays, including The Opportunity and Where the Sun Shines, both 1964, and stage plays, including The Dung Heap Flower, 1970, The Prosecution, 1971, and Hang on in There, Nelson!

WORK IN PROGRESS:

A nonfiction book and a novel.

SIDELIGHTS:

A premier journalist for Drum magazine during the 1960s, South African writer Arthur Maimane made a name for himself for his investigations of apartheid abuses. Many of his short stories and serialized detective pieces were published in Drum and other magazines. When his political activities made him persona non grata in his homeland, he went on to work as a writer and producer for a number of respected news organizations outside of Africa, including the British Broadcasting Corporation and Independent TV News. He also wrote several plays, such as the award-winning The Opportunity and Hang on in There, Nelson! With a hiatus of three decades between them, he published the novels Victims and Hate No More. Maimane returned to South Africa in 1994 to work as managing editor of the Star newspaper in Cape Town.

In 1997 Maimane became a media consultant and full-time writer, publishing his second novel three years later. Because of censorship in South Africa during the 1960s, Hate No More had waited thirty years to find a publisher. Set in the 1960s, the novel portrays the life of Phillip Mokone, a black man living in Sophiatown, South Africa. Consumed with rage against apartheid, Mokone finally resorts to an act of violence in a whites-only suburb.