Cape Town - Legendary poet, writer and publisher James Matthews has been honoured with a Department of Sport, Arts and Culture award which recognises living legends in the arts and culture sector.
Matthews received the Van Toeka AF Living Legends Recognition Series award at a ceremony in the city over the weekend.
The award is also designed to be a knowledge-sharing platform that offers guidance while motivating future generations. Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Mthethwa had identified Matthews as a living legend worthy of this honour.
Through his extensive body of work and only armed with a pen, Matthews was fiercely committed to political and social justice. Against all odds, he went on to establish the first black-owned art gallery in Cape Town (Gallery Afrique) and set up his own publishing house, BLAC, an acronym for Black Literature, Culture and Society, in 1974. The publishing house closed in 1991, due to constant harassment by the apartheid regime.
Despite most of his work having been banned in South Africa under apartheid, Matthews went on to gain international recognition. He is the recipient of the Woza Afrika Award (1978); Kwaza Honours List – Black Arts Celebration, Chicago, US. (1979); and the Freeman of Lehrte and Nienburg, Germany (1982).
Matthews was awarded the National Orders of the Ikhamanga in Silver for his excellent achievements in literature, his contribution to journalism and his inspirational commitment to the Struggle for a non-racial South Africa.