Antjie Krog (1952– ) is a prominent South African poet, academic and writer. 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Early life

Born into an Afrikaner family of writers on 23 October 1952 in Kroonstad, 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 would pen these brave and idealistic words for her school magazine, scandalising her conservative Afrikaans-speaking community and bringing the attention of the national media to her parents' doorstep [1]: The neutrality of this article is disputed. ... The town of Kroonstad, the third-largest town in Free State Province, South Africa lies two hours drive from Gauteng. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... B. J. Vorster Balthazar Johannes Vorster (December 13, 1915 - September 10, 1983), better known as John Vorster, was Prime Minister of South Africa from 1966 to 1978, and President from 1978 to 1979. ... A segregated beach in South Africa, 1982. ... Afrikaans is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia with smaller numbers of speakers in Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Zambia. ...

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.

In 1973 she earned a BA (Hons) degree in English from the University of the Orange Free State, and an MA in Afrikaans from the University of Pretoria in 1976 [2]. 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. 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1973 calendar). ... A Bachelor of Arts (B.A. or A.B., from the Latin Artium Baccalaureus) is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course or program in the arts and/or sciences. ... The University of the Free State is situated in Bloemfontein, the capital of the Free State Province. ... A masters degree is an academic degree usually awarded for completion of a postgraduate course of one or two years in duration. ... The University of Pretoria is a university in South Africa, with a total of about 38 499 students being enrolled in 2005. ... Note: UniSA can also refer to the University of South Australia. ...

Poet

Described by her contemporary Joan Hambidge, as the Pablo Neruda of Afrikaans, Krog would publish her first book of verse, Dogter van Jefta at the age of seventeen. Within the next two years she published a second collection titled: Januarie-suite. Since then she has published nine 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. Joan Hambidge is Afrikaans poet, renowned for her out-of-the-closet style of writing. ... Pablo Neruda as a Presidential candidate in 1970 Pablo Neruda (July 12, 1904 – September 23, 1973) was the pen name of the Chilean writer Ricardo Eliecer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto. ...

Journalist

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 (erstwhile 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: 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... SABC logo The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the state owned broadcaster in South Africa, and was for many years the monopoly, controlled by the white minority National Party government. ... The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was a court-like body assembled in South Africa after the end of Apartheid. ...

If its interest is linked only to amnesty and compensation, then it will have chosen not truth, but justice. If it sees truth as the widest possible compilation of people's perceptions, stories, myths and experiences, it will have chosen to restore memory and foster a new humanity, and perhaps that is justice in its deepest sense.[3].

When the TRC hearings were completed in 1997, Krog took up the post of Parliamentary Editor at SABC.

Prose writer

She is best known for her book Country of My Skull, which chronicled the TRC. With Krog's reluctant permission, the book was later dramatized for the screen by Ann Peacock resulting in a film of the same name. Released in the United States as In My Country, it stars Samuel L. Jackson and Juliette Binoche [4]. While the film was thought to have its "heart and politics in the right place" it was otherwise panned by the Washington Post as a "formula romance", in which Binoche fails at the Afrikaans accent and Jackson's character, Langston Whitfield, lacks credibility as a Post reporter[5]. Country of My Skull is a nonfiction book by Antjie Krog primarily about the findings of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Jackson as The Man Samuel Leroy Jackson (born December 21, 1948) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor. ... Juliette Binoche (born March 9, 1964) is an Academy Award-winning French actress. ... ...

A Change of Tongue, her second work of prose in English, recounts tens years of evolution after South Africa's first democratic elections. A post-modern blend of fiction, poetry, and reportage it explores the surprising and predictable changes that South Africans have made since abandoning apartheid. At times humorous, she weaves strands of autobiography with the stories of others to document struggles for identity, truth and salvation. The title of the book has political and private meanings: the diminishing role of Afrikaans in public discourse is reflected in her own flight into English as the vernacular of her work.

Private life

She is married to architect John Samuel and has four children: Andries, Susan, Philip, and Willem. In 2004 she joined the Arts faculty of the University of the Western Cape[6]. The University of the Western Cape is a university located in the Belville suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. ...

Criticism

In February 2006, the poet Stephen Watson, writing in New Contrast, accused her of plagiarism. He claimed that she lifted the entire conception of her book [the stars say 'tsau' ] from [his] Return of the Moon, and that she also plagiarised from the work of Ted Hughes. Krog strongly denied the claims. [7] Stephen Watson (1955-) is a South African poet. ...

Critics often argue that her prose writing deals more with her own personal issues concerning her identity and inner struggles, rather than the broader social commentary that her work claims to reflect.

Concern has also been raised about the usage of the survivors' testimonies from the TRC without the permission of those individuals.

Literary works

Poetry

• Dogter van Jefta (1970)
• Januarie-suite (1972)
• Beminde Antarktika (1974)
• Mannin (1974)
• Otters in Bronslaai (1981)
• Jerusalemgangers (1985)
• Lady Anne (1989)
• Gedigte 1989–1995 (1995)
• Kleur kom nooit alleen nie (2000)
• Down to my last skin (2000)
• Met woorde soos met kerse (2002)

Poetry for children

• Mankepank en ander Monsters (1989)
• Voëls van anderster vere (1992)

Prose

• Relaas van 'n Moord (1995)
• Country of my Skull (1998), published in the USA as In my country
• A Change of Tongue (2003)

Drama

• Waarom is die wat voor Toyi-toyi altyd vet? (1999)

Translation

• Domein van Glas, from the Dutch Mondvol Glas by Henk van Woerden
• Lang Pad na Vryheid, from the English Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
• Mamma Medea, from the Flemish play Mamma Medea by Tom Lanoye

The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Nelson Mandela Long Walk to Freedom is an autobiographical work written by Nelson Mandela in 1995, and published by Little Brown & Co. ... Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela IPA: (born July 18, 1918) was the first President of South Africa to be elected in fully-representative democratic elections. ... The term Flemish language can designate: the official language of Flanders, which is Dutch with only very small variations; any of the regional dialects of Dutch spoken in Belgium; these are more different from Dutch than the official language of Flanders; one of these dialects, the West Flemish. ... Tom Lanoye (born August 27, 1958 in Sint-Niklaas) is a Fleming novelist and poet. ...

Awards

• Eugene Marais Prize (1973)
• Reina Prinsen-Geerligs Prijs (1976)
• Rapport Prize (1987)
• Hertzog Prize (1990)
• Foreign Correspondent Award (1996)
• Pringle Award (1996)
• Alan Paton Award (1996)
• Booksellers Award (1999)
• Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation Award [8] (2000)
• RAU-Prys vir Skeppende Skryfwerk (2001)
• South African Translators' Institute Award for Outstanding Translation [9] (2003)