Mark Behr

Mark Behr (19 October 1963 – 27 November 2015) was a Tanzanian born writer who grew up in South Africa. He was professor of English Literature and Creative Writing at Rhodes College, Memphis, Tennessee. He also taught in the MA program at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Early life

Behr was born into a family of farmers in the district of Oljorro, Arusha, Tanzania, then still Tanganyika. After the nationalisation of white-owned farms during the implementation of President Julius Nyerere's Ujamaa Policy of African Socialism in 1964, the family emigrated to South Africa. Here the family defined themselves as Afrikaners, with the Behr children attending Afrikaans language schools and the conservative Dutch Reformed church.

Behr's father became a game ranger in the game parks of KwaZulu-Natal, where Behr spent his early youth. Between ages ten and twelve Behr attended the Drakensberg Boys' Choir School, a private music academy in the Drakensberg Mountains of KwaZulu-Natal. After matriculation from Port Natal High School, an Afrikaans language school in Durban, he was, like most other young white South African men of his age, conscripted into the South African Defence Force, and he served in the Angolan War, becoming a junior officer in the Marine Corps.