DENNIS BRUTUS, 85

Poet, anti-apartheid activist

South African poet and former political prisoner Dennis Brutus died in his sleep at his home in Cape Town on Saturday.

Mr. Brutus was an anti-apartheid activist who was jailed at Robben Island with Nelson Mandela in the mid-1960s. His activism led Olympic officials to ban South Africa from competition from 1964 until apartheid ended nearly 30 years later.

Exiled from South Africa in 1966, Mr. Brutus later moved to the United States and taught literature and African studies at Northwestern University and the University of Pittsburgh.