John Kani Quotes

I’m Dad at home, not John Kani.

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

Everything you do on stage is always a response to something, not the next line.

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

Inkaba’ is about a feud between two South African families. They have been fighting for years, from one generation to the next. It’s like those typical feuds you have in rural KwaZulu-Natal where, after a while, you do not even know why you are fighting.

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.

I couldn’t really say that a repressive society would result in creative art. But somehow it does help, it is an ingredient, it acts as a Catalyst to a man who is committed.

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.

Over the years, many young actors have approached me: Vusi Kunene, Sello Maake ka Ncube, and Seputla Sebogodi. They all said, ‘Hey Bra John, let’s do ‘The Island and we want you to direct.’ But somehow, my heart was not in it or I was busy with something else, so I’d say, ‘ja, ja, we’ll do it.’

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

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.

We have to depoliticise our youth. We have to teach our youth that the word ‘government’ means them, it’s something to feel pride in, not something to attack.

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.

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.

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

I am a citizen of the world, or no world at all!

My grandfather told me our history through his stories about all the great Zulu battles.

All over the world, there is someone sitting in a cell because he or she is not allowed freedom of expression.

Protest theater has a place again. It’s not against whites or apartheid. It is against injustice and anything that fails our people.

Every time there is a movie that tells a South African story, it is done by someone who must be taught the right way of pronouncing ‘Sawubona.’ Enough is enough.

And I’m part of the generation of South Africans who feel we’re lucky to be alive.

‘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.

I was 51 when I voted for the first time in 1994, and I look at South Africa through those spectacles.

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.

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.

When I am offered work, I am very selective.

I understood the whole purpose of Truth and Reconciliation, and I supported it 100 per cent, but I couldn’t deal with it myself.

Shakespeare examines how democracy is built.

I had to look at white people as fellow South Africans and fellow partners in building a new South Africa.

When western culture developed, we became detached from nature, detached from our relationship with the animals. We saw animals perhaps as only the rhino horn, the elephant’s tusk, we saw it as making money.

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

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

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

I believe strongly that the word ‘protest’ is no excuse for bad work. The artist must create.

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

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.’

Working with my friend Sir Antony Sher is truly one of the highlights of my career as an artist.

Our job as artists, we believe, is not to make changes in society. We don’t have the ability to do that. We reflect life. We are the mirror of the society to look into. Our job is to raise questions, but we have no answers.

Someone once asked me what I missed most. I said, ‘My youth.’ I’ve never been a boy who could run around, go crazy, do this, try that. There wasn’t time for that.

I am known for always playing virtuous characters.

I want my work to contribute toward creating a better society, toward bringing people together. That is always the first consideration, not the money.

In South Africa, it is different. When you are born not even your father knows what is going to happen in your life.

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.

I was the generation who hated the white man, despised him, wanted to shoot him.

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