ABSTRACT

Dennis Brutus was born on November 28, 1924, in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, to South African parents. Francis Henry Brutus and Margaret Winifred Bloemetjie were teachers who, quite early in Brutus’s life, moved to the coastal town of Port Elizabeth, where Brutus grew up in the district of Dowerville with his brother Wilfred and sisters Helena and Dolly. Brutus attended school there irregularly, and so his childhood was one of comparative solitude. Perhaps this was exacerbated by the breakup of his parents.