Ingrid Jonker

On 19 July 1965, South African poet Ingrid Jonker died at the age of 31. Her poems have been widely translated from Afrikaans into other languages. In April 2004 Jonker was posthumously awarded the Order of Ikhamanga by the South African government for "her excellent contribution to literature and a commitment to the struggle for human rights and democracy in South Africa”.

Ingrid Jonker was born on her maternal grandfather's farm near Douglas, Northern Cape, on 19 September 1933. During the 1950s and 60s, which saw the Sharpeville Massacre and increasingly draconian enforcement of Apartheid laws, Jonker chose to affiliate herself with Cape Town's racially mixed literary bohemia. In both her poems and in newspaper interviews, Jonker angrily denounced the ruling National Party's racial policies and the increasing censorship of literature and the media. This brought her into open conflict with her father, a widely respected Member of Parliament for the ruling Party. Troubled by depressions, Jonker drowned herself on July 19, 1965.

In his inaugural State of the Nation address to Parliament on 24 May 1994, Nelson Mandela praised Jonker's role as a critic of Apartheid and read her poem Die kind (wat doodgeskiet is deur soldate by Nyanga) ('The child (who was shot dead by soldiers at Nyanga)') in English translation.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Selected publications

Flame in the snow : the love letters of André Brink & Ingrid Jonker. - Cape Town : Umuzi, cop. 2015

Ik herhaal je / Ingrid Jonker. - Amsterdam : Uitgeverij Podium, december 2013

Gesprekke oor Ingrid Jonker / L.M. Van der Merwe; Petrovna Metelerkamp. - Hermanus : Hemel & See Boeke, 2006

Ingrid Jonker : beeld van 'n digterslewe / Petrovna Metelerkamp; Anna Jonker. - Vermont : Hemel & See, 2003

Versamelde werke / Ingrid Jonker. - Kaapstad [etc.] : Human & Rousseau, 1994

Rook en oker / Ingrid Jonker. - Johannesburg : Afrikaanse Pers-Boekhandel, 1964

Films

Timeline of Afrikaans-language poets via Wikidata and DBpedia