Ingrid Jonker

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Ingrid Jonker "Selected Poems"

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.

Childhood and 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.

Adulthood and 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.

Her father Abraham Jonker, already a writer and editor and National Party Member of Parliament, was appointed chairman of the parliamentary select committee responsible for censorship laws on art, publications and entertainment. To his embarrassment, his daughter was vehemently opposed to these laws and their political differences became public. In a speech in parliament Jonker's father denied her as his daughter. 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 and she underwent an abortion (a crime in South Africa at the time). The mental distress of her father's rejection and the abortion contributed to her decision to enter Valkenburg Psychiatric Clinic in 1961. (Jonker's mother had died at Valkenberg several years before.)

Jonker's 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 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 (Sixty-ers) (a group that also included Breyten Breytenbach, André P. Brink, Adam Small and Bartho Smit), who were challenging the conservative Afrikaans literary norms at the time.

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). The money helped her to realize her dream of travelling to Europe, where she visited England, The Netherlands, France, Spain and Portugal. She asked Jack Cope to accompany her, but he refused. Jonker then asked André P. Brink to join her. He accepted and they went to Paris and Barcelona together. During the trip Brink decided against leaving his wife for Jonker and went back to South Africa. Jonker then cut her tour short and returned to Cape Town.

Jonker had started writing a new collection of poems just before her death. A selection of these poems was published posthumously in the collection Kantelson (Toppling Sun).

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. On hearing of Jonker's death, her father reportedly said: "They can throw her back into the sea for all I care".

Copyright and 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. He remained a trustee of the Trust until his death in 1991. Jonker's daughter Simone Venter is the beneficiary. Copyright is still vested in the Trust.

Jonker's literary papers went to the National English Literary Museum (NELM) in Grahamstown. Her sister Anna Jonker borrowed these with the intention of writing a biography on her sister. However, after Anna died, 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 stored the documents with her brother, Anthony Bairos. Bairos reportedly sold them to Gerrit Komrij, who now has the papers at his house in Portugal. Komrij is keeping them for his friend Henk van Woerden who plans to write a biography of Ingrid Jonker. (Van Woerden wrote a biography on Dimitri Tsafendas called A Mouthful of Glass.)

Legacy

Jonker's poetry has been translated from Afrikaans into English, German, French, Dutch, Polish, Hindi and Zulu, among others. She wrote a one-act play 'n Seun na my Hart (A son after my heart (literal); A son just like me (translation)) about a mother's illusions about her handicapped son. Jonker also wrote several short stories.

The prestigious Ingrid Jonker Prize for the best debut work of Afrikaans or English poetry was instituted by her friends to honour her legacy after her burial in 1965. This yearly prize, consisting of R1000 and a medal, is awarded alternately to an Afrikaans or English poet who has published a first volume in the previous two years.

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 Afrikaans, during his address at the opening of the first democratic parliament on May 24, 1994. [1]

In 2002 the one-woman, interactive play by Ryk Hattingh, Opdrag: Ingrid Jonker (Assignment: Ingrid Jonker), was staged at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival starring Jana Cilliers. The play dealt with questions and comments on Jonker’s life, interwoven with her poems and other writing.

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.[2]

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 that he had set to music. The release coincided with the 40th anniversary of Jonker's death. Some of Jonker's poems that inspired Chameleon's songs are "Bitterbessie Dagbreek" (Bitterberry Daybreak), "Lied van die gebreekte Riete" (Song of the Broken Reeds) and "Ontvlugting" (Escape).

Ingrid Jonker biography

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 are said to assist Simone Venter (Ingrid Jonker's daughter) financially.

Links

• South African National order of Merit to Ingrid Jonker 2004
• English translation of "Die Kind"
• Afrikaans original text for "Die Kind"
• Article with photos, in Afrikaans
• About the biography "Ingrid Jonker: beeld van 'n Digterslewe"