Described as a “sensitive child with a keen self-awareness and gifted beyond her years“, Ingrid Jonker started writing at a very young age. Na die Somer (After the Summer) is believed to be the first compilation of her poems when she was thirteen years old.
Ingrid was a member of the anti-establishment group of writers and poets, Die Sestiger. Her work made publishers nervous, apartheid government unhappy and even earned her the scorn of her father.
She wrote poems that showed her humaneness, her compassion for all human beings regardless of colour. She never held back in expressing her opposition to apartheid laws. One of her best known poems is The child (who was shot dead by soldiers at Nyanga). Her work has been widely translated from Afrikaans to English, German, French and even Zulu.
She was only 31 years old when she drowned herself.
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This the third print quarterly from Poetry Potion. Inspired by Audre Lorde’s essay, this edition is themed “Poetry Is Not A Luxury”
features: poet profile – Tereska Muishond who talks about how writing had affected her life positively and about her award winning chorepoem Te Veel Vir ‘n Coloured Girl.
poetry: Fasaha Mshairi, Mandy Mitchell, Ayabulela Tutuse, Saurell Boyers, Morula wa Kutukgolo, Monique Barnard