Black Excellence: John Kani
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/17/nx-s1-5318738/john-kani-athol-fugard-black-panther-south-africa
Actor, playwright and activist John Kani is a legend in South Africa. He was arrested, beaten and almost left for dead because of his work developing and starring in plays that were often searing indictments of apartheid. But he didn’t let up.
“When you grow up in a war torn or an oppressive regime and you are at the receiving end of that injustice, born in you, inside, is an unbroken commitment to the liberation of your people,” Kani said.
Kani is perhaps best known in the United States for voicing Rafiki in two Lion King movies and playing King T’Chaka in Black Panther and Captain America: Civil War.