His Voice Must Be Heard: Dennis Brutus, the Anti‐Apartheid Movement, and the Struggle for Political Asylum in the United States

Abstract

After receiving a surprise deportation order in 1981, exiled South African poet and activist Dennis Brutus embarked on a 2‐year struggle with the Reagan administration and its constructive engagement policies, underscoring the growing rift between public condemnation of apartheid and the U.S. government's continued support of the South African government. In the twenty years since the Sharpeville Massacre vaulted apartheid into America's collective public consciousness, the anti‐apartheid forces in the United States had won few victories against the U.S. government. Brutus's ensuing deportation offered a unique opportunity to directly challenge the U.S. government and its support of South Africa. This article explores Brutus's struggle, which offers insight into not only the complicated experience of exile, but also the complex interplay between activism and foreign policy that manifested itself through the burgeoning anti‐apartheid movement and the recalcitrant U.S. government at the beginning of the 1980s.