Biography of Konstantin Sofianos

In many ways, Konstantin’s wide-ranging Alkeos and Marina married in East global imagination, a central part of his Germany and lived in Halle (Saale) for life and work, came from his culturally rich several years, before moving to Cyprus in and diverse family. His paternal 1979, shortly after the birth of their first grandfather, Chrysostomos Sofianos, was a son, Markus. Their second son, Konstantin self-taught intellectual, poet and Sofianos, was born on 25 June 1983 in translator who could read and write in 8 Limassol, Cyprus. Three years later, Alkeos languages, and who edited the political was recruited by the South African Council section of a major Greek newspaper in for Scientific and Industrial Research Kairo, , before and during the (CSIR) to join the world-famous Catalysis Second World War. research group, and in June 1986, against the advice of family and friends, the Konstantin’s father, Alkeos Sofianos, came Sofianos family moved to , South from a family of academics – his cousin Africa. was the Minister of Education in Cyprus. Another cousin was a highly-decorated Konstantin’s parents decided to give him a professor for Nuclear Physics at the German education, and enrolled him in University of (UNISA). Marina the Deutsche Schule Pretoria (DSP), where Sofianos, née Ramisch, Konstantin’s he spent his schooling life from the first mother, was born in Potsdam, then in East grade to Matric. Germany, and met Alkeos while they were both studying at the Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg, he on a scholarship to pursue chemical engineering, she to become an industrial pharmacist.

Marina and her family’s experience of living in East Germany, where her parents, who became refugees after the evacuation of Bohemia and East Prussia by the Germans in 1945, lived for the entirety of the existence of that country, made up an important part of Konstantin’s political and social Founded in 1899, the Deutsche Schule consciousness. During intensive Pretoria is a German and English-medium discussions with his maternal grandfather, co-educational school situated in park-like he gained close knowledge of what premises on the eastern boundary of socialism and the Cold War meant for Pretoria. In addition to the two official many people living in the Eastern part of languages at the time, German was taught Germany. at the level of mother tongue and every year a number of new teachers came from Biography of Konstantin Sofianos

Germany, many with new ideas and young Konstantin spent all of his pocket progressive ways of tutoring. money on books, and was greatly influenced by his older brother, Markus, After Matric, Konstantin spent an with whom he was always very close, and additional year at DSP, in order to who guided him carefully in his cultural complete the German Abitur before education. entering university. As those who knew him well might have guessed, Konstantin Konstantin soon decided that the was a brilliant, but also a headstrong and humanities were, to him, the most fiercely independent pupil. He entered important field of learning. Towards the Grade 1 already being able to read, write end of his school career, the school and do maths, and the school soon asked director called him in to admonish him for his parents to move him a year ahead, neglecting his mathematical studies. since he was growing bored with the Konstantin replied that “Maths is only an material, and, according to his teachers, intellectual game; what counts is “his ability to finish tests within minutes literature, history, and the use of discouraged his class mates”. language.” The director, who was himself Consequently, Konstantin was always a a mathematics teacher, was not year younger than his school peers, but he impressed by this statement, but once didn’t let this stop him. He became again Konstantin did not let himself be captain of the soccer team, wrote for the stopped: at the end of Matric he received class magazine, participated on behalf of the school medals for best scholar of the school at university debates, and in his German, English and Afrikaans, as well as last years at school he was the various other awards for language studies. Schulsprecher, equivalent to Head Boy in As a German citizen, Konstantin had the English schools. option of studying at a German university As might be expected, Konstantin was upon completing school, following the particularly good at the study of example of his brother, who after Abitur languages. Here, his rich multi-linguistic left for Heidelberg, Germany. However, he background was a great help: his mother had by now grown deeply attached to learnt Greek while living in Cyprus, so South Africa, and he decided to study law Konstantin grew up in a house where and humanities at UCT. German, Greek and English were spoken languages. His Cypriot grandmother lived with the family in Meyerspark until she died in 1996. At school Konstantin also learnt French and Afrikaans, a language with which he fell in love with as a teenager. Konstantin’s knowledge and deep understanding of Afrikaans literature and music was highly impressive. The Biography of Konstantin Sofianos

In the words of his father, Konstantin saw “the law as a profession which would allow him to help his fellow human beings of South Africa, not as a means to become rich”. During his undergraduate career, Konstantin performed brilliantly in his humanities subjects, winning the Thelma Tyfield prize for a prescient essay on the imagery of excrement in Ayi Kwei Armah’s novel The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born. However, Konstantin was becoming He completed his Master’s degree in bored with some of his law subjects, and Victorian Literature in 2007, once again upon graduation he decided that South with the highest marks in his class, and Africa did not need yet another civil rights immediately began his doctoral studies attorney. With his usual facility for long- under supervision of Dr Stefano term planning, Konstantin decided that he Evangelista and Professor Elleke Boehmer. would do an English Literature Honours so His DPhil dissertation, provisionally that he could qualify for a Rhodes Trust entitled The Novel In the Imperial World scholarship to study English at Oxford. His System, considered Victorian cultural performance as an English Honours production, particularly the novels of student was impressive, and his UCT George Eliot, Olive Schreiner, and Joseph lecturers remember him as an Conrad, as part of a British-centred global “outrageously brilliant”, sometimes economic system, and considered the intimidatingly advanced and erudite artistic challenges which these novelists student. He was duly awarded a Rhodes faced in their attempts to “meaningfully scholarship, for a total of 3 years and left engage the encompassing reality of an South Africa to study at the University of imperial world system.” His dissertation Oxford in 2006. was duly defended and confirmed, in 2010, but his illness prevented the final Wadham College, which Konstantin submission. During his time at Oxford, attended, is known for being the most Konstantin also participated in several politically progressive of the Oxford conferences and seminars, and made colleges. Konstantin’s research at Oxford many life-long friends, particularly was informed by a sophisticated amongst his group of peers who had also understanding of the historical world received the Rhodes scholarship. system of capitalism and imperialism which determined his place and Konstantin returned to South Africa in responsibilities as a South African literary 2010 to take up a teaching position at the scholar. University of ’s English Department. The English Department had advertised five positions; however, Paula Biography of Konstantin Sofianos

Ensor, then Dean of Humanities, was so impressed with Konstantin’s range and depth of knowledge, and with his professionalism during the interview, that she insisted that the department hire six lecturers instead of five to make space for Konstantin.

At UCT Konstantin met his partner Christine Emmett in 2012. She was tutoring one of the novels Konstantin was teaching (Adam Bede, by George Eliot). They spent long hours discussing this and various other books and research projects, especially Christine’s dissertation, Konstantin providing her with feedback as she finished and submitted it in 2013. Many common interests besides english literature saw them spending more and more time together.

During this time of teaching at UCT he also He was duly appointed as a Junior published widely in the South African Research Fellow. He did not disappoint in media, particularly in Chimurenga and the his capacity as a teacher. On the contrary: Sunday Independent, for which he wrote according to the testimony of a number of both glowing reviews of novels and his post graduate students, whom he scathing indictments of the weaker supported all the way until they obtained aspects of the local literary landscape. scholarships for Oxford and Cambridge However, his self-defined work as a and beyond, he was a brilliant lecturer, an “literary civil servant” was not confined to excellent supervisor and an intellectual friend and supporter. his teaching and writing; his gift for fascinating conversation, his During his years as a staff member at UCT, thoroughgoing knowledge of philosophy, he lectured and taught seminars on a contemporary politics and literature, and wide variety of subjects, from Victorian his deep commitment to teaching was a novels to modernist aesthetic great inspiration to all of his students and experimentation to contemporary African- colleagues. American culture. Biography of Konstantin Sofianos

Africa any more, he left for Germany, where, after an unsuccessful operation at Heidelberg, he stayed with his brother’s family in Stuttgart from September 2014, where his treatment was continued. Due to a constant progression of the cancer despite some partly successful treatments, he moved to a specialist clinic

in Hamburg, where he passed away on the In keeping with the rest of his rich and 17th of April 2015 in Hamburg. His family itinerant life, Konstantin’s last major and Christine were present right until the scholarly talk was delivered in end. It was his express wish to be buried in October 2013, at a in South Africa, because South Africa was commemorative event organised by the his home, the place he was most Greek Embassy to mark the 150 year intellectually, emotionally and socially anniversary of the birth of the great Greek invested in, and finally the place where he poet Constantine Cavafy. Konstantin felt he belonged. He was buried in delivered the main speech of the event, Zandfontein Cemetery in Pretoria, close to alongside advocate George Bizos, the poet his grandmother. Achmat Dangor and the great South African actor and director John Kani – a fitting return to his roots, speaking amongst other great thinkers from Africa, Greece, and further abroad.

Shortly thereafter, Konstantin was diagnosed with testicular cancer (late 2013). Despite undegoing a succession of treatments in South Africa, lasting for nearly a year, there was aggressive progression of the disease. After the South African treating doctors informed him that he cannot be treated in South