| Antjie Krog |
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Information AboutAntjie Krog |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT ANTJIE KROG | |
| 1952 births | |
| krog, antjie | |
| living people | |
| south african poets | |
| south african journalists | |
| south african dramatists and playwrights | |
| anti-apartheid activists | |
| afrikaners | |
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Antjie Krog ( 1952 – ) is a prominent South African poet, academic and writer. 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 {Link without Title} : : 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 (UNISA) she would lecture at a segregated teacher’s training college for black South Africans. 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. 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: ''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.'' {Link without Title} . 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 '' as a "formula romance", in which Binoche fails at the Afrikaans accent and Jackson's character, ''Langston Whitfield'', lacks credibility as a Post reporter {Link without Title} . ''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 {Link without Title} . 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 stars say 'tsau' from Return of the Moon'', and that she also plagiarised from the work of Ted Hughes. Krog strongly denied the claims. [http://www.litnet.co.za/seminarroom/krog_krog.asp 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
Poetry for children
Prose
Drama
Translation
AWARDS
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