Lionel Ngakane

Lionel Ngakane 17 July 1928 26 November 2003 was a South African filmmaker and actor who lived in exile in the United Kingdom from the 1950s until 1994 when he returned to South Africa after the end of apartheid His 1965 film Jemima and Johnny inspired by the 1958 race riots in Notting Hill London won awards at the Venice and Rimini film festivals In the 1960s Ngakane was a founding member of the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers FEPACI and Fespaco the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou FESPACO Ngakane was born in Pretoria South Africa2 In 1936 his family and he moved to the Sophiatown neighbourhood of Johannesburg His father a teacher set up a hostel with Alan Paton author of the 1948 novel Cry The Beloved Country Ngakane was educated at Fort Hare University College and the University of Witwatersrand and worked on Drum and Zonk magazines from 1948 to 1950 In 1950 he began his career in film as an assistant director and actor in the film version of Cry the Beloved Country 1951 directed by Zoltan Korda Shortly thereafter Ngakane went into exile in the United Kingdom As an actor he appeared in films including The Mark of the Hawk in 1957 with Eartha Kitt on television Quatermass and the Pit 1958 and the spy series Danger Man Deadline 1962 with Patrick McGoohan and on stage in Errol Johns Moon on a Rainbow Shawl5 and Wole Soyinkas play The Lion and the Jewel at the Royal Court Theatre in 19666 Ngakane returned to South Africa after the end of apartheid in 1994 He is best remembered for his short film Jemima and Johnny 1965 inspired by the 1958 race riots in Notting Hill London It won awards at the Venice and Rimini film festivals He also directed documentaries on apartheid and African development He was honorary president of the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers FEPACI which organization he had originated in 1967 as a lobbying group for the support of African filmmakers2 He died in Rustenburg South Africa in 2003 aged 75