Antjie Krog
Antjie Krog (born 1952) is a South African writer and academic, best known for her Afrikaans poetry, her reporting on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and her 1998 book Country of My Skull. In 2004, she joined the Arts faculty of the University of the Western Cape as Extraordinary Professor.[1]
Antjie Krog
1952 (age 71–72)
Kroonstad, Orange Free State,
Union of South Africa
Writer, poet, critic, journalist
South African
Postmodern Afrikaans poetry
John Samuel
4
Career[edit]
1980s: Poet and activist[edit]
In the 1980s and early 1990s, living with her husband and young children in Kroonstad, Krog taught at a black high school and teachers' college. In Kroonstad, she was politically active – attending ANC meetings and protests – and became involved with the Congress of South African Writers, founded in 1987.[4] She was invited to read a poem at a "Free Mandela" rally in the township of Maokeng.[4] Her anti-Apartheid activities during this period, and the hostility they evoked among conservative white locals, are the topic of her first work of prose, Relaas van 'n moord (1995; "Account of a Murder").[10]
1990s: Journalist at the TRC[edit]
In 1993, Krog became editor of a now-defunct Afrikaans current-affairs journal, Die Suid-Afrikaan ("The South African").[6]
From 1995 to 2000, she was a radio journalist at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).[2] She led the radio team that covered the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) from 1996 to 1998, and her reporting during this period became the basis of her second prose work, Country of My Skull (1998).[10] Krog reported under her married name, Antjie Samuel.[10]
2000s–present: author, academic, and public intellectual[edit]
In the past two decades, Krog has published three volumes of new poetry, four prose books and a book of essays, and several translations, including two from indigenous African languages. Krog also translated Nelson Mandela's biography, Long Walk to Freedom, into Afrikaans.[11] She regularly translates from Dutch into Afrikaans as a writing exercise.[4]
Following the publication of Country of My Skull, Krog gave a series of lectures about the TRC in Europe and the United States.[9] More recently, she taught a course on translation at Columbia University's Institute for Comparative Literature and Society.[12] She was writer-in-residence at the Dutch Foundation for Literature in early 2019, at Ghent University in 2020, and at Leiden University in autumn 2021.[13][14]
Since 2004, she has been Extraordinary Professor at the University of the Western Cape and a research fellow at its Centre for Multilingualism and Diversities Research, and she regularly publishes literary criticism.[1][12]
Play and theatre adaptations[edit]
Krog's only stage play, Waarom is dié wat voor toyi-toyi altyd so vet? ("Why are those who toyi-toyi in front always so fat?") was performed in 1999, opening at the Aardklop Arts Festival.[18] The play was directed by Marthinus Basson. At the 1999/2000 FNB Vita Regional Theatre Awards (Bloemfontein), the production was nominated for seven awards, including Best Production and Best Script of a New South African Play.[19] In Krog's words, the play is about "the effort of two races to get into a dialogue."[10]
Krog's Afrikaans translation of Mamma Medea by Tom Lanoye was staged in South Africa in 2002, also under Basson's direction.[18] 'n Ander tongval, the Afrikaans translation of her book A Change of Tongue, was adapted for the theatre by Saartjie Botha and staged in 2008 under the direction of Jaco Bouwer.[20]
Plagiarism allegation[edit]
In 2006, poet Stephen Watson, then head of the English department at the University of Cape Town, accused Krog of plagiarism. Writing in a literary review called New Contrast, he said that Country of My Skull used phrases from Ted Hughes's 1976 essay, "Myth and Education." Watson also claimed that the concept for Die sterre sê 'tsau', a 2004 selection of indigenous poetry arranged and translated by Krog, had been ripped off from a similar collection he had published in 1991.[21] Krog strongly denied the allegations, saying that she had not been aware of the Hughes essay until after she had published Country of My Skull, and that she had properly credited her sources in Die sterre sê 'tsau'.[21]
Poetry
Prose
Translations
Journalism
Both journalism awards were shared with the rest of the SABC's TRC reporting team.[29]
Lifetime achievement
Krog has also been awarded honorary doctorates from the Tavistock Clinic at the University of East London, the University of Stellenbosch, the University of the Free State, and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.[1]
Afrikaans:
English: