Ingrid Jonker
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Ingrid Jonker (19 September 1933 - 19 July 1965) (OIS) was a South African poet. Although she wrote in Afrikaans, her poems have been widely translated into other languages. Ingrid Jonker has reached iconic status in South Africa and is often called the South African Sylvia Plath, owing to the intensity of her work and the tragic course of her turbulent life. Her work has also been compared to that of Anne Sexton.
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[edit] Childhood & Early Career
Jonker was born on a farm in the rural area of Douglas, near Kimberley. She was the daughter of Abraham Jonker and Beatrice Cilliers. Her parents separated prior to her birth and her grandparents (with whom she, her elder sister Anna and mother were living) decided to move to a farm near Cape Town. Five years after the move her grandfather died, leaving the four women to a poverty-stricken existence.
In 1943 Ingrid's mother also died. She and her older sister Anna were then first sent to school in Cape Town, but later moved in with their father, his third wife and their children. The two sisters were treated as outsiders, which caused a permanent rift between Ingrid and her father and threw a shadow over the rest of her life.
In 1945 she first corresponded with the South African writer and poet D.J. Opperman, whose views influenced and stimulated her work greatly.
Her first collection of Afrikaans poems, entitled Na die somer (After the summer) was produced at the age of sixteen. Although several publishers were interested in her work, she was advised to wait before going into print; her first book of poems Ontvlugting (Escape) was eventually published in 1956.
[edit] Adulthood & Career
Jonker married Pieter Venter in 1956, and their daughter Simone was born in 1957. The couple moved to Johannesburg but after three years they separated. Jonker and her daughter then moved back to Cape Town.
During this period her father who, in addition to being a writer and editor was also a member of parliament for the National Party, was appointed chairman of the parliamentary select committee responsible for introducing censorship laws on art, publications and entertainment. To his embarrassment, Ingrid was vehemently opposed to these laws and their political differences became public.
The mental stress caused by the strained relationship with her father caused Ingrid to be admitted to the psychiatric clinic Valkenburg in 1961, where her mother had died some years before.
Her next collection of poems, Rook en oker (Smoke and ochre), was published in 1963, after delays caused by the conservative approach of her publishers. While the collection was praised and acclaimed by most South African writers, poets and critics, it was given a cool reception by the more conservative white South African public. Thereafter she became known as one of the Sestigers (or "Sixtiers", Afrikaans poets of the Sixties), a group that also included Breyten Breytenbach, André P. Brink, Adam Small and Bartho Smit, who were all challenging the conservative Afrikaans literary norms of the time.
During the same time period she had affairs with two writers, Jack Cope and André P. Brink. One of these affairs resulted in a pregnancy, which led her to undergo an abortion (a crime in South Africa at the time). This also negatively influenced her already distressed mental state.
Rook en oker won Jonker the £ 1000 Afrikaanse Pers-Boekhandel (Afrikaans Press-Booksellers) literary prize (as well as a scholarship from the Anglo American Corporation), which enabled her to realize her dream to travel to Europe, where she visited England, The Netherlands, France, Spain and Portugal. She first wanted Jack Cope to accompany her, but he refused. Jonker then asked André P. Brink to join her. He accepted and they visited Paris and Barcelona together, but in the end he decided against leaving his wife for Jonker and thus he went back to South Africa.
However, due to illness (possibly brought on by depression and excessive alcohol use after Brink left her), she had to cut her tour short and return to Cape Town.
Uys Krige's sister tells a story of how during one of her stays in a psychiatric hospital, Jonker recognised another patient, a woman who was married to her father, Abraham Jonker at the time. She laughed and said: "Here we both are!"[1]
Jonker was writing a new collection of poems just before her death. A selection of these poems were published posthumously in the collection Kantelson (Toppling sun).
[edit] Death
During the night of 19 July 1965, Jonker went to the beach at Three Anchor Bay in Cape Town where she walked into the sea and committed suicide by drowning. Upon hearing of Ingrid's death her father reputedly said: "They can throw her back into the sea for all I care".
[edit] Copyright & Papers
After Jonker's death, copyrights and control of her literary estate and papers were awarded to Jack Cope by the Master of the Court. He established the Ingrid Jonker Trust, of which he was trustee until his death in 1991. Jonker's daughter Simone Venter remains the beneficiary. Copyright is still vested in the Trust.
Jonker's literary papers went to the National English Literary Museum (NELM) in Grahamstown, with Jack Cope. Her sister Anna Jonker borrowed these at some point, with plans to write a biography on Ingrid Jonker. After Anna's death, the papers went to Anna's daughter Catherine de Villiers, who lived on the property of writer Jan Rabie and artist Marjorie Wallace at the time. Since De Villiers didn't have storage space, she kept the documents at her brother's, Anthony Bairos. Bairos apparently sold them to the Dutchman Gerrit Komrij, who now holds them in his house in Portugal. Komrij is said to keep them for his friend Henk van Woerden who plans to write his own biography on Ingrid Jonker. (Van Woerden wrote a biography on Dimitri Tsafendas called A Mouthful of Glass.)
[edit] Legacy
Jonker's poetry has been translated from Afrikaans into English, German, French, Dutch, Hindi and Zulu, amongst others. She also wrote a one-act play called 'n Seun na my Hart (A son after my heart) about a mother's illusions about her handicapped son as well as several short stories.
The prestigious Ingrid Jonker Prize for the best debut work of Afrikaans or English poetry was instituted by her friends in honour of her memory after her burial in 1965. This yearly prize, consisting of R 1000 and a medal, is awarded alternately to an Afrikaans or English poet who has published his or her first volume in the previous two years.
In what was probably the ultimate tribute to Jonker and her work, Nelson Mandela read one of her poems, Die kind (wat doodgeskiet is deur soldate by Nyanga) ("The child who was shot dead by soldiers at Nyanga"), in the original Afrikaans, during his address at the opening of the first democratic parliament on May 24, 1994.[2]
In 2002 the one-woman "interactive" play by Ryk Hattingh, Opdrag: Ingrid Jonker (Assignment: Ingrid Jonker) was staged at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival, with actress Jana Cilliers, that dealt with questions and comments on Jonker’s life, interwoven with her poems and writings.
In April 2004 Jonker was 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.[3]
A number of her poems have been set to music by Afrikaans musicians over the years, and sung by such artists as Laurika Rauch and Anneli van Rooyen. In 2005, Chris Chameleon (known better as the lead singer of the South African band Boo!) released the album Ek Herhaal Jou (I repeat you), which consisted of a number of Jonker's poems, which he had set to music. This coincided with the 40th anniversary of Jonker's death.
[edit] Ingrid Jonker Biography
Ingrid Jonker's biographer is Petrovna Metelerkamp who published Ingrid Jonker - Beeld van 'n digterslewe (Ingrid Jonker - Image of a poet's life) in 2003. This book contains new insights into the poet's life, and includes love letters (some unsent) and an as yet unpublished account of the night of Jonker's death by her friend, Bonnie Davidtsz. The proceeds of the book is said to help Simone Venter (Ingrid Jonker's daughter) financially.
