John Kani Quotes

Here, we’ve compiled a list of the best John Kani Quotes. The wide variety of quotes available makes it possible to find a quote to suit your needs. You’ve likely heard some of the John Kani Quotes before, but that’s because they truly are great.

It dawned on me that theatre is a powerful weapon for change.

John Kani

In 1990 there were about 300 scripts being written demanding the release of Nelson Mandela. And suddenly we watched Mandela walking out of prison. So those scripts had to be destroyed.

John Kani

Shakespeare examines how democracy is built.

John Kani

I still remember the moment when my teacher, Mr. Budaza, walked into class and said, ‘Today we are going to study ‘Julius Caesar,’ one of Shakespeare’s most important plays.’

John Kani

In any character you are given to play, be it evil/good/whatever character, you begin with self. You examine yourself and ruthlessly see similarities between you and the devil, or between you and the dictator, or between you and the kind man.

John Kani

The exchange rate of the Rand against the dollar, pound or euro makes South Africa an attractive location. The positive side of this is it gives our artists and technicians an opportunity to work.

John Kani

I have never been attracted to television work. Even to appear in series and soapies. I have always appeared in theatre and major movies, writing plays and other things.

John Kani

I’d read Shakespeare in school, translated into isiXhosa, and loved the stories, but I hadn’t realised before I started reading the English text how powerful the language was – the great surging speeches Othello has.

John Kani

You can’t always play the hero. You have to play the villain.

John Kani

It is a troubled soul that forces the human being to act. It is some kind of gangrene within you, inside of you, that eats your soul, that forces you to save your soul.

John Kani

This is the problem I have: I write a play and I give it to a director and they say, ‘I’ll do it one condition: if you play the role.’

John Kani

You found during apartheid a strange occurrence from the white folks themselves. There were those who did make a choice to speak out and stand and be counted in the army of human beings who believed in justice. And then there are those who left.

John Kani

In South Africa, we’ve been watching these movies all our lives – ‘Batman,’ ‘Superman,’ ‘Captain America‘ – and every time the mask comes off it’s a white man.

John Kani

I must concentrate all my efforts in the attainment of freedom for my people.

John Kani

When I first encountered Shakespeare as a boy, I read every word this man has written. To me, he is like an African storyteller.

John Kani

I remember the words of my grandmother who died at 102. I remember my great mother, Grand Brika, who died at the age of 106. They talked to us all the time. And my grandmother even lied to me. She said there was royalty. She said that my great-great-great grandfather was the king of the outer Thembu.

John Kani

When I tell a story, I have to tell it honestly.

John Kani

Apartheid is a lie, people can work together, people can create together.

John Kani

In Australia, I almost became a counsellor. At the end of each performance there would be a queue of sobbing people backstage. They all wanted to explain why they left South Africa.

John Kani

I come from a long line of storytellers.

John Kani

When I was asked to write a concept for a telenovela, I didn’t underestimate my non-experience in the field.

John Kani

I always say my first break was a dead man’s break.

John Kani

If we’d lived in England or America we’d have told stories abut our lives and nobody would have called it protest theatre. But the reality of South Africa was the arrests and detentions and oppression – we could not escape that, so we decided to take it on.

John Kani

I spent 51 years under apartheid. I don’t imagine suffering. I know it.

John Kani

In South Africa in 1987, apartheid was still going strong. Some of the most brutal race laws had been relaxed, but they hadn’t yet been repealed. There was still a lot of tension.

John Kani

You can give me any of Shakespeare’s plays and I’ll tell you a parallel African folktale.

John Kani

That’s the beauty of art: art is universal.

John Kani

My stories are about humanity, about the challenges of surviving and the constant fight against ignorance, inhumanity and complacency.

John Kani

I write about the human condition, as a South African. I sometimes see South Africa with the spectacles of the past and there will then be a political content in my writing.

John Kani

‘iNkaba’ has made me famous in the living rooms of the people of my country. It was almost like being famous all over again. People stop me in the street and shopping malls to take pictures.

John Kani

Before 1994, many South Africans used theater as a voice of protest against the government. But with the end of apartheid, like the artists who watched the fall of the Iron Curtain in Europe, theater had to find new voices and search for new issues.

John Kani

The only reference in my life is my life, and it’s my life experience. It’s my environment. It’s my community. I’ve not made that for books.

John Kani

I have been on the Urban Brew board for many years and assisted with the artistic evaluation of the various shows that were pitched to the production company.

John Kani

I’m Dad at home, not John Kani.

John Kani

The government harasses everything. The government must keep a constant surveillance of all activities by black people in order to maintain their reign over them, especially when they are in a minority.

John Kani

I did ‘Sizwe Bansi is Dead’ for 34 years.

John Kani

We haven‘t got those dreams: ‘I wish to become doctor or a lawyer.’ Black people in South Africa have been barred in doing anything that would articulate their cause.

John Kani

We’ve got the right to vote, but what does it mean? People now want to have the right to a job, the right to education, the right to medical services.

John Kani

It is ridiculous to think we can erase racism in South Africa, but through theater there can be a genuine attempt to move on with our lives and build a better country.

John Kani

When I tried to do ‘Waiting for Godot, it was such a controversy. I was tired of political theatre. All I wanted to do was ‘Godot.’ You know what happened? We were told we had messed up and politicised a classic that has nothing to do with S.A.

John Kani

John Kani Quotes

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