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'{{EngvarB|date to say you will be in the fortnite world as always and get many wins {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}} '''Daniel Canodoce''' "'''Can'''" '''Themba''' (21 June 1924 – 1968)<ref>Gaylard, Robin Peter, [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4361 "Can Themba"]. ''The Literary Encyclopedia''. 20 August 2009.</ref> was a South African short-story to go and do some stuff as a a story writer ==Early life== Temba was born in [[Marabastad, Pretoria|Marabastad]], near [[Pretoria]], but wrote most of his work in [[Sophiatown]], [[Johannesburg]], South Africa. The town was destroyed under the provisions of the [[apartheid]] [[Group Areas Act]], which reassigned ethnic groups to new areas. He was a student at [[Fort Hare University College]], where he received an English degree (first-class) and a teacher's diploma. After moving to Sophiatown, he tried his hand at short-story writing. Temba entered the first short story contest of ''[[Drum (South African magazine)|Drum]]'' (a magazine for urban black people concentrating mainly on investigative journalism), which he won. He subsequently worked for ''Drum'', where he became one of the "Drum Boys," together with [[Henry Nxumalo]], [[Bloke Modisane]], [[Todd Matshikiza]], Stan Motjuwadi and [[Casey Motsisi]]. They were later joined by [[Lewis Nkosi]] and [[Nat Nakasa]]. This group lived by the dictum: "Live fast, die young and have a good-looking corpse."<ref name="A good-looking corpse">{{cite book |author=Mike Nicol |title=A Good-Looking Corpse |publisher=Secker & Warburg |location=London |year=1991 |pages= |isbn=0-436-30986-6 |oclc= |doi=}}</ref> Part of ''Drum'''s ethos was investigative journalism. One of the aims was to show the realities and inequities of [[apartheid]]. Themba decided to see how white churches would react to his attending services. {{Quotation| :"The Presbyterian Church in Noord Street allowed me in, yet the one in Orange Grove refused me admittance. They explained that the hall was rented from some boys' club whose policy did not allow Non-whites into the hall. They also said something about the laws of the country." :"At the Kensington DRC (Dutch Reform Church), an aged church official was just about to close the doors when he saw me. He bellowed in [[Afrikaans]]: 'Wat soek jy?' (What do you want?). 'I've come to church', I said. He shoved me violently, shouting for me to get away. I walked off dejected." :"A few doors away was the Baptist Church, and as I walked towards it I began to think that people didn't want me to share their church. As I walked through the Baptist door I was tense, waiting for that tap on the shoulder…but instead I was given a hymn book and welcomed into the church. I sat through the service… This up and down treatment wasn't doing my nerves much good." |Can Themba|''The Will to Die''}} ==Migration to Swaziland== Growing frustrations with the restrictions of apartheid, caused him to move to [[Swaziland]] where he worked as a teacher. In 1966, he was declared a "statutory communist", as a result of which his works were banned in South Africa. His literary output was only readily available in the 1980s with the publication of two collections ''The Will to Die'' (1972) and ''The World of Can Themba'' (1985). In his stories, he described the frustrations of the university-educated urban black people; unavailable to realise their true potential because of the racial restrictions of apartheid and trying to balance their modern urban culture with the historical rural tribal one. {{Citation needed|date=April 2009}} His most famous story "[[The Suit (short story)|The Suit]]" tells the story of Philemon, a middle-class lawyer, and his wife, Matilda, who live in Sophiatown. One day, Philemon hears that his wife is having an affair, so he goes home in the middle of the day and catches her ''in flagrante''. Her lover jumps out of the window but leaves behind his suit. Philemon then dreams up a strange and bizarre punishment. Matilda has to treat the suit as an honoured guest, feed it, entertain it and take it out for walks. This serves as a constant reminder of her adultery. A remorseful Matilda eventually dies of humiliation. Philemon then regrets his actions but it is all too late. (A stage version of "The Suit" was created by Mothobi Mutloatse and [[Barney Simon]] at the [[Market Theatre (Johannesburg)|Market Theatre]] in Johannesburg in the early 1990s, and was subsequently translated into French (''Le Costume'') by Barney Simon and [[Jean-Claude Carrière]] for a production by [[Peter Brook]] in Paris in 1994, and London in 2012.) Themba's increasing dependency on alcohol led to darker, introspective pieces such as ''Crepuscle'', ''The Will to Die'', and ''The Bottom of the Bottle''. ==Death== He died ==See also== *''[[The Suit (short story)|The Suit]]'', short story by Can Themba. *''[[The Suit (2016 film)]]'', a short film adaptation of the Can Themba short story, written and directed by [[Jarryd Coetsee]]. ==Awards== * South African ''The Order of Ikhamanga in Silver'' for "Excellent achievement in literature, contributing to the field of journalism and striving for a just and democratic society in South Africa." (Posthumous) <ref name='Award'>{{cite news | first= | last= | author2= | title=Profile of Canodoise Daniel Themba | date= | publisher=S A National Orders | url =http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/orders_list.asp?show=335 | work = | pages = | accessdate = 26 April 2007 | language = |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20070330084219/http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/orders_list.asp?show=335 |archivedate = 30 March 2007}}</ref> ==Books== * ''Deep Cuts: graphic adaptations of stories by Can Themba'', Alex la Guma & Bessie Head / project co-ordinator: Neil Napper; editor: Peter Esterhuysen, Maskew Miller, Longman, 1993, {{ISBN|0-636-01896-2}} * ''The Suit by Can Themba''; adapted by Chris van Wyk; illustrated by Renée Koch. Viva Books, 1994. {{ISBN|1-874932-14-X}} * ''The Will To Die / Can Themba''; selected by Donald Stuart and Roy Holland, Heinemann, 1972. {{ISBN|0-435-90104-4}} * ''The World of Can Themba: selected writings of the late Can Themba'', edited by Essop Patel, Ravan Press, 1985. {{ISBN|0-86975-145-X}} * ''Requiem for Sophiatown''. London: Penguin, 2006. {{ISBN|9780143185482}} ==References== {{reflist}} ==Sources== * Mike Nicol, ''Good-looking Corpse: World of Drum – Jazz and Gangsters, Hope and Defiance in the Townships of South Africa'', Secker & Warburg, 1991, {{ISBN|0-436-30986-6}} * Anthony Adams & Ken Durham (eds), ''Writing from South Africa'', Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|0-521-43572-2}}, contains "Mob Passion" by D. Can Themba. ==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070330084219/http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/orders_list.asp?show=335 Can Themba’s profile] for National Orders * [https://www.theguardian.com/stage/video/2012/may/25/theatre-peter-brook-director-interview-video "Simplicity is not a style"] – video interview about "The Suit" with Peter Brook and Andrew Dickson, ''The Guardian'', 25 May 2012. {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Themba, Can}} [[Category:1924 births]] [[Category:1968 deaths]] [[Category:People from Johannesburg]] [[Category:People from Pretoria]] [[Category:South African journalists]] [[Category:South African male short story writers]] [[Category:South African short story writers]] [[Category:University of Fort Hare alumni]] [[Category:South African emigrants to Eswatini]] [[Category:Recipients of the Order of Ikhamanga]] [[Category:20th-century South African writers]] [[Category:20th-century South African male writers]]'