Antjie Krog
| Antjie Krog | |
|---|---|
Krog at a book signing of Fynbosfeetjies in Bloemfontein in March 2009
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| Born |
October 23, 1952 Kroonstad, South Africa |
| Occupation | Writer, poet, Journalist |
| Language | Afrikaans |
| Nationality | South African |
| Alma mater | University of Pretoria |
| Spouse | John Samuel |
| Children | Andries, Susan, Philip en Willem |
Antjie Krog (born 23 October 1952) is a South African poet, academic, and writer. In 2004 she joined the Arts faculty of the University of the Western Cape.
Born into an Afrikaner family of writers in Kroonstad, Orange Free State, South Africa, she grew up on a farm, attending primary and secondary school in the area. In 1970, at the height of John Vorster's apartheid years, she penned an anti-apartheid poem for her school magazine: Gee vir my 'n land waar swart en wit hand aan hand, vrede en liefde kan bring in my mooi land (Give me a land where black and white hand in hand, Can bring peace and love to my beautiful land) scandalising her conservative Afrikaans-speaking community and bringing the attention of the national media to her parents' doorstep:
In 1973 she earned a BA (Hons mwa) degree in English from the University of the Orange Free State, and an MA in Afrikaans from the University of Pretoria in 1976. With a teaching diploma from the University of South Africa (UNISA) she would lecture at a segregated teacher’s training college for black South Africans.
Described by her contemporary Joan Hambidge, as the Pablo Neruda of Afrikaans, Krog would publish her first book of verse, Dogter van Jefta (Daughter of Jephta) at the age of seventeen. Within the next two years she published a second collection titled: Januarie-suite (January Suite). Since then she has published several further volumes, one in English. Much of her poetry deals with love, apartheid, the role of women, and the politics of gender. Her work has been translated into English, Dutch and several other languages.
Later, Krog would edit the now-defunct, independent Afrikaans journal Die Suid-Afrikaan, co-founded by Hermann Giliomee in 1984. On the strength of her work there, she was invited to join the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) by Pippa Green, head of radio news. For two years, reporting as Antjie Samuel, she contributed to the radio programme AM Live with items on South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Of the commission she said:
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