Louise Viljoen teaches in the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. She is well known as a literary critic and book reviewer, and has recently published a study of Antjie Krog, a prominent contemporary South African poet, writer, and academic, best known for her book, Country of My Skull.
Listed in: African Studies · South Africa · Biography, Literary Figures · Biography & Autobiography | Women
Ingrid Jonker
Poet under Apartheid
By Louise Viljoen
Nelson Mandela brought the poetry of Ingrid Jonker to the attention of South Africa and the wider world when he read her poem “Die kind” (The Child) at the opening of South Africa’s first democratic parliament on May 24, 1994. Though Jonker was already a significant figure in South African literary circles, Mandela’s reference contributed to a revival of interest in Jonker and her work that continues to this day.Viljoen’s
