Antjie Krog was a rose among the apartheid thorns from an early age
IN SOUTH Africa there are two major white ethnic groups, the Afrikaners and the English.
As much as the English were once in charge, the Afrikaners were the last white group to govern South Africa. From both groups there were people who were against the oppression of people of colour. From the Afrikaners, who were perceived as being the most conservative, there were wonderful people.
Antjie Krog was one rose among the thorns from an early age, a thorn from the most conservative Afrikaner province, the Orange Free State.
Krog’s background and what she became were very much in contradiction, especially at the age she started to “drift away” from the way her community shaped the young. In terms of Afrikanerdom, she was an apple that fell far from the tree. The worst part is that she was a woman, at a time when women, especially of Afrikaner descent, were “not allowed” to participate in politics.
Peter Joyce (1999:137-138) is of great help in telling who Antjie Krog was/is: Afrikaans poet and journalist.
Krog made her debut with Dogter van Jefta in 1970. Later works, which show increasing maturity, include Januarie – Suite (1972), Mannin (1975), Otters in Bronslaai (1981), Jerusalem Gangers (1985) and Gedigte 1989-1995 (1996).
In her capacity as a reporter Krog covered the Truth and Reconciliation hearings of the mid-and-later 1990s, publishing a moving personal chronicle of her impressions, Country of My Skull, in 1998.
Joyce’s summary might not be up to date because as an activist her life of writing is not an event, but a process for perhaps as long as she lives.
The worst part is the province she hails from – the Orange Free State. Yet she was not shaken in her resolve not to keep quiet and benefit from the evil system of apartheid. She took up a weapon of a special type – the pen. As is said, the pen is mightier than the sword, and the role of the pen cannot be undermined.
Krog’s writings were part and parcel of the first pillar of the Struggle against apartheid, mass mobilisation. They also contributed and consolidated another pillar, international solidarity. That is the pillar, argued in some circles as the main one that accelerated the end of apartheid.
Even after the inception of democracy in South Africa, to her the Struggle continued. She became part of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
Deservedly, she fitted like hand in a glove. This is because she fought for truth when it was dangerous during the dark days of apartheid. She risked her life for the sake of truth and justice. One of the ultimate goals by some people who fought against apartheid, including her, was to work for reconciliation.
She contributed to the first and the last pillars of the Struggle consecutively – mass mobilisation and international solidarity. The first pillar was for opening the eyes of South Africans, especially white people, to the evils of apartheid. That was both difficult and dangerous, but she knew it would not be easy. What is most important is that she did not turn back. What she was dedicated to and risked for was not in vain. To her the Struggle did not end in 1994, but aluta continua! Her pen did not run dry.
The back cover of one of her books is summarised as follows:
“A Change of Tongue traces the humour of change and the pain of belonging through the personal narratives of individuals, families, groups, poets, officials and politicians. Past and future manifest themselves in food, language, landscape, memories, small towns and sewerage farms as South Africans try to find new footholds in a democratic space. In a world too often focused on revenge, these narratives explore other ways of being: within a colour, a country and a continent.”
October 23 marked the 70th birthday of Antjie Krog. Happy belated birthday Antjie!