WATCH | Social media mourns Toni Morrison's death - 'She moved the world with each word she wrote'
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. The death of multi award winning novelist Toni Morrison has shaken the global community, with scores taking to social media to bid her farewell and share their encounters with her or her work.
Videos of her television interviews in which she confronted racism and inequality are also being widely shared as the world remembers what she stood for.
Morrison died on Monday, at 88 years old, after a short illness. Her family released a statement to announce the devastating news.
"It is with profound sadness we share that, following a short illness, our adored mother and grandmother Toni Morrison passed away peacefully last night surrounded by family and friends."
Former US president Barack Obama described Morrison as a national treasure and good storyteller. Here are more tributes shared on social media:
Toni Morrison was a national treasure, as good a storyteller, as captivating, in person as she was on the page. Her writing was a beautiful, meaningful challenge to our conscience and our moral imagination. What a gift to breathe the same air as her, if only for a while. pic.twitter.com/JG7Jgu4p9t
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 6, 2019
“Language arcs toward the place where meaning might lie”
— Lindsey McFall (@topdogmcfall) August 6, 2019
Teaching Beloved will be even heavier this year, but Toni Morrison’s words have always held a lot of weight. I feel honored to share her language with students each year and to watch them find meaning. #RIPToniMorrison pic.twitter.com/QcTyLO7Kcl
Toni Morrison wrote about the Korean War in Home and I have always, always cherished how delicately and seriously she undertook that work.
— salt, fat, acid, yeet (@hermit_hwarang) August 7, 2019
"I tell my students, 'When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.'" #ToniMorrison pic.twitter.com/diASw2xbm9
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) August 7, 2019
Rest In Power Toni Morrison. A towering wordsmith who moved the world with each word she penned. pic.twitter.com/a7vENAsY5a
— Dr Dlamini Zuma (@DlaminiZuma) August 7, 2019
“Beauty was not something simply to behold; it was something one could do.”
— Francheska (@HeyFranHey) August 6, 2019
- Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye pic.twitter.com/LcGs4OMuJV
Toni Morrison was a towering intellect, a brilliant scribe of our nation’s complex stories, a heartbreaking journalist of our deepest desires, and a groundbreaking author who destroyed precepts, walls and those who dared underestimate her capacity. Rest well and in peace. pic.twitter.com/nMkxXRtEoz
— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) August 6, 2019
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.