John Kani

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John Kani
File:John Kani.jpg
Kani in 2007
Born Bonisile John Kani
(1943-08-30) 30 August 1943 (age 80)
New Brighton, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Occupation
  • Actor
  • director
  • playwright
Years active 1965–present
Children Atandwa Kani
Honours Order of Ikhamanga in Silver[1]

Bonisile John Kani (born 30 August 1943) is a South African actor, author, director and playwright. He is known for portraying T'Chaka in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Black Panther (2018), Rafiki in the 2019 remake of The Lion King and Colonel Ulenga in the Netflix film Murder Mystery (2019).

Early and personal life

Kani was born on 30 August 1943 in New Brighton, Eastern Cape.[1] 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.[2]

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.[3]

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in the former snake pit of the zoo, hence the name) in Port Elizabeth in 1965 and helped to create many plays that went unpublished but were performed to a resounding reception.[citation needed]

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![4]

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.'[5] These two plays were presented in repertory at the Edison Theatre for a total of 52 performances.[citation needed]

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.[6]

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.[7] In the same year, he was also awarded a special Obie Award for his extraordinary contribution to theatre in the United States.[8]

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.[9] 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 live action remake of the Disney animated film).[10]

Kani's play, Kunene and the King, a co-production for the Royal Shakespeare Company and Fugard Theatre, played in the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon in 2019 before transferring back to Cape Town. He starred alongside fellow South African Antony Sher.[11]

Other recognition and awards

On 20 February 2010, Kani received a SAFTA Life Time award.[12] 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.[13]

In 2006, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Cape Town.[14] Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University appointed him an honorary Doctor of Philosophy in 2013.[15]

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".[1]

The main theatre of the Market Theatre complex in Newtown, Johannesburg, has been renamed The John Kani Theatre in his honour.[16]

In 2020 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of the Witwatersrand[17] Recently, in 2021, John Kani has been conferred the Da Vinci Laureate by The Da Vinci Institute.

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

Television roles
Year Title Role Notes
1974 BBC2 Playhouse Styles / Buntu Episode: "Sizwe Bansi Is Dead"
2nd House Episode: "Athol Fugard"
1978 Play for Today George O'Brien Episode: "Victims of Apartheid"
1985 Master Harold...and the Boys Willie TV Movie
1986 Miss Julie John TV Movie
1989 Othello Othello TV Movie
1997 Kap der Rache Inspektor Khumalo German TV Movie
2006 Hillside Dr. Vincent Maloka 1 episode
2008 The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Daddy Bapetsi Episode: "Pilot"
Silent Witness Dr. Phiri 2 episode
2012 iNkaba Mkhuseli Mthetho 1 episode
2015 Wallander Max Khulu Episode: "The White Lioness"
2021 What If...? T'Chaka (voice) 2 episodes
Film roles
Year Title Role Notes
1978 The Wild Geese Sgt. Jesse Link
1980 Marigolds in August Melton
1981 Killing Heat Moses
1987 Saturday Night at the Palace September
An African Dream Khatana
1989 Options Jonas Mabote
A Dry White Season Julius
The Native Who Caused All the Trouble Tselilo Mseme
1992 Sarafina! School Principal
1995 Soweto Green: This Is a 'Tree' Story Dr. Curtis Tshabalala
1996 The Ghost and the Darkness Samuel
1997 Kini and Adams Ben
1998 The Tichborne Claimant Bogle
2001 Final Solution Rev. Peter Lekota
2007 The Bird Can’t Fly Stone
2008 Nothing but the Truth Sipho Also director and writer
2009 Endgame Oliver Tambo
2010 White Lion Old Gisani
2011 Coriolanus General Cominius
Janapriyan Indian Movie
How to Steal 2 Million Julius Twala Snr. South African Movie
2012 Jail Caesar Marius
2016 The Suit Mr. Maphikela Short film
Captain America: Civil War T'Chaka
2018 Black Panther T'Chaka
2019 Murder Mystery Colonel Ulenga
The Lion King Rafiki (voice)
2021 Seal Team Brick (voice)
TBA Murder Mystery 2 Colonel Ulenga Post-production[18]

Drama

  • Nothing But the Truth (2002)

References

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  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link] Vol 25 No 14
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External links

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