Zakes Mokae, the black Tony-winning actor who helped end apartheid on the stages of South Africa in September 1961 when he starred with the white playwright Athol Fugard in the revolutionary play The Blood Knot has died in Las Vagas at the age of 75. The cause was complications after a stroke he suffered on 6 May, said his wife Madelyn. (Pictured: ZakIt was the first time that a black and a white actor had appeared on the same stage, that plays author Athol Fugard said after learning of his great friend and colleagues death on 11 September.
The Blood Knot was a work of art that not only placed Fugard and Mokae under the international spotlight: it also defied a national taboo by telling South African audience, for the first time, about the lives of two brothers, one black, the other light enough to pass as white.
It caused a sensation when it was performed (for one night only, said the billboards) at the legendary Dorkay House 48 years ago. It ran for six months and its fame in South Africa persuaded an English producer to open it in London where it was an enormous success despite being panned by Kenneth Tynan.
As Fugard went on to explore the dreadful effects of racial separatism on the individual psyches of men, women and children Zakes Mokae starred in many of the white mans productions.
In 1982 Zakes won a Tony for his performance as Sam, one of two blacks servants working in a Port Elizabeth tea room, in what some say is Fugards masterpiece Master Harold and the Boys.
Zakes was born in Johannesburg on 5 August 1934.
When he met Fugard in a Johannesburg bar the black musician who wanted to turn actor was playing the saxophone. Fugard, a journalist who dared cross the colour barrier for a night out in town wanted to be a playwright.
After The Blood Knot opened in London , Zakes was barred from returning to South Africa and he settled first in UK and then moved to US where he starred in many plays and took leading roles in cinema productions including The Comedians, Darling, Cry Freedom and A Dry White Season.
If youre a black man and youve never been to prison theres something wrong with you, said the great actor who through a mixture of ability and courage helped break the stranglehold of apartheid in the theatres of South Africa .
(Zakes Mokae, actor: Born Johannesbury 5 August 1934, died Las Vagas 11 September 2009, survived by his wife Madelyn, a daughter and three grandchildren.)
Post published in: Zimbabwe News