Book launch at Afrikan Freedom Station

Zakiya Mckenzie

zakiyam@caxton.co.za

AFRIKAN Freedom Station was abuzz with activity on 24 October as the second launch for Shaun Viljoen's book on late activist Richard Rive got underway at the afro-art multimedia gallery in Westdene.

Though not well-known, the Cape Town-born Rive played an important role in the struggle against racism and discrimination in South Africa.

In Richard Rive, A Partial Biography, Shaun Viljoen, a former colleague of Rive’s, recreates the composite qualities of a man who was committed to the struggle against racial oppression and to the ideals of non-racialism but was also variously described as irascible, and arrogant, with a ‘cultivated urbanity’.

Beneath these public personae lurked Rive’s constant and troubled awareness of his dark skin colour as well as his homosexuality.

The event also featured a dramatised extract from Richard Rive’s Buckingham Palace, District Six by actor and director Basil Appollis.

Details: Afrikan Freedom Station on FB – facebook.com/AfrikanFreedomStation