Pieter-Dirk Uys
Encyclopedia
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n satirist
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
, active as a performer, author, and social activist. He is the son of a Calvinist Afrikaner
Afrikaner
Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...
father and Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
-born Jewish mother and had an NG Kerk upbringing. He began his dramatic career as a serious playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
, switching to one-man revues at the height of the Apartheid
History of South Africa in the apartheid era
Apartheid was a system of racial segregation enforced by the National Party governments of South Africa between 1948 and 1994, under which the rights of the majority 'non-white' inhabitants of South Africa were curtailed and white supremacy and Afrikaner minority rule was maintained...
era.
Uys is particularly well known for his character Evita Bezuidenhout (also known as Tannie Evita), a white Afrikaner socialite and self-proclaimed political activist. The character was inspired by Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n comedian Barry Humphries
Barry Humphries
John Barry Humphries, AO, CBE is an Australian comedian, satirist, dadaist, artist, author and character actor, best known for his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage, a Melbourne housewife and "gigastar", and Sir Les Patterson, Australia's foul-mouthed cultural attaché to the...
's character Dame Edna Everage
Dame Edna Everage
Dame Edna is a character created and played by Australian dadaist performer and comedian, Barry Humphries, famous for her lilac-coloured or "wisteria hue" hair and cat eye glasses or "face furniture," her favorite flower, the gladiola and her boisterous greeting: "Hello Possums!" As Dame Edna,...
. Evita is the ambassadress of Bapetikosweti - a fictitious Bantustan
Bantustan
A bantustan was a territory set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa , as part of the policy of apartheid...
or black homeland located outside her home in the affluent, formerly whites-only suburbs of Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
. Evita Bezuidenhout is named in honour of Eva Perón
Eva Perón
María Eva Duarte de Perón was the second wife of President Juan Perón and served as the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952. She is often referred to as simply Eva Perón, or by the affectionate Spanish language diminutive Evita.She was born in the village of Los Toldos in...
. Under Apartheid, Uys used the medium of humour
Humour
Humour or humor is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement...
and stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...
to criticize and expose the absurdity of the South African government's racial policies. Much of his work was not censored, indicating a closet approval of his views by many members of the ruling party, who were not so bold as to openly admit mistakes and criticize the policies themselves.
For many years, Uys lampooned the South African regime and its leaders, as well as the sometimes hypocritical attitudes of white liberals. One of his characters, a kugel (social climbing Jewish woman) once said: "There are two things wrong with South Africa: one's apartheid and the other's black people". This was later erroneously attributed to Uys himself.
Following South Africa's first non-racial elections in 1994, Uys starred in a TV series, Funigalore, in which Evita interviewed Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
and other prominent politicians of the day. In the theater, Uys/Evita's performances include You ANC Nothing Yet. He and his character are known for their tireless work in the frontline of HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
/AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
activism and education. He is currently involved in teaching AIDS awareness to children and education in the use of condoms, traveling to schools all over South Africa. Uys also serves on the Board of Directors for the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation
Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation
The Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded to provide treatment for and conduct research relating to HIV. It is based in Cape Town, South Africa and is managed with the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the University of Cape Town...
, a non-profit organisation founded to provide treatment for and conduct research relating to HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
.
Uys converted the old railway station of Darling
Darling, Western Cape
Darling is a small town in a farming area on the west coast region of the Western Cape, about 75 km from Cape Town.By the beginning of the 18th century about 29 farmers lived in an area called Groenkloof and on one of these farms, Langfontein, Darling was founded in 1853...
, where he lives, into a cabaret venue called Evita se Perron (Perron is Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
for station platform) and performs there regularly.
During 2004, Pieter-Dirk Uys took part in a Carte Blanche story, dealing with genetics and unlocking the mysteries of race and ethnicity, entitled "So, Where Do We Come From?". Uys discovered that he has khoisan
Khoisan
Khoisan is a unifying name for two ethnic groups of Southern Africa, who share physical and putative linguistic characteristics distinct from the Bantu majority of the region. Culturally, the Khoisan are divided into the foraging San and the pastoral Khoi...
heritage from his mother's side.
Uys received the Special Teddy Award 2011 at the Berlin International Film Festival
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...
(Berlinale) for his commitment to AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
education at South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n schools and for his on-stage alter ego
Alter ego
An alter ego is a second self, which is believe to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. The term was coined in the early nineteenth century when dissociative identity disorder was first described by psychologists...
, Evita Bezuidenhout. An independent jury presents the Teddy Award to individuals for lifetime achievements for films with LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
(gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) topics.
Awards and honours
- The 2011 TMSA Naledi Lifetime Achiever Award
- Special Teddy Award at the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) 2011
- Truth and Reconciliation Award in 2001
- Mrs Evita Bezuidenhout was awarded the Living Legacy 2000 Award in San Diego
- The lifetime achievement award from the Cape Tercentenary FoundationThe Cape Tercentenary FoundationThe Cape Tercentenary Foundation was set up in 1950 by brothers Edward and Harry Molteno, pioneers of the Cape fruit industry. The influential exporters were great appreciators of music and the arts, and were deeply concerned about the natural environment...
- Doctor honoris causa from
- Rhodes University: D.Litt. (Hon.), 1997
- University of Cape Town: D.Litt for distinguished, socially-responsible creative work in 2003
- University of the Western Cape: D.Ed. (Hon.), 2003
Books
- Farce about Uys (Jonathan Ball and Ad. Donker Publishers, 1983) - ISBN 0-86850-077-1
- Selle ou storie: A play (Donker, 1983) - ISBN 0-86852-027-6
- Paradise Is Closing Down and Other Plays (Penguin Books Ltd, 1989) - ISBN 0-14-048228-8
- Funigalore: Evita's Real-Life Adventures in Wonderland (The Penguin Group (SA) (Pty) Ltd) - ISBN 0-14-025313-0
- The Essential Evita Bezuidenhout (The Essential Series) (David Philip Publishers) - ISBN 0-86486-349-7
- A part hate a part love: The legend of Evita Bezuidenhout (Hond, 1994) - ISBN 1-874969-08-6
- Trekking to Teema (Compress, 2001) - ISBN 1-919833-10-2
- Elections & Erections: A Memoir of Fear and Fun (Zebra Press, 2003) - ISBN 1-86872-665-7
Films/Documentaries
- Skating on thin Uys, a 1985 comedy lampooning P.W. Botha
- Darling! The Pieter–Dirk Uys Story, a 2007 documentary by Julian ShawJulian ShawJulian Shaw is an author, filmmaker and actor, best known for directing the 2007 film Darling! The Pieter-Dirk Uys Story, a British Film Institute award-winning documentary about the life of South African political satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys...