Antoinette Pienaar (born 1961) is a South African actress, singer, and author.

Early life

One of five sisters, Antoinette Pienaar was born in

Beaufort West Beaufort West (Afrikaans: ''Beaufort-Wes''; Xhosa: ''eBhofolo'') is a town in the Western Cape province in South Africa. It is the largest town in the arid Great Karoo region, and is known as the "Capital of the Karoo". It forms part of the Beauf ...

, grew up in Carnavon and studied drama at the

University of Stellenbosch Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...

"Documentary Website"
and the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

Career

She started her acting career in Shakespearean productions and later turned to singing, writing and storytelling, performing her gentle satires at the National Arts Festivals of Grahamstown, Oudshoorn and other Southern African theaters. As storyteller she is best known for her stories of historical African heroines such as Krotoa of the Cape."Random House Publishers – Profile of Pienaar"
Since 2001 she has been apprentice to Oom Johannes Willemse (a Griqua

Shaman Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...

) in the deep recesses of the Karoo. She is also featured in "Van Nature", a regular insert on the Afrikaans breakfast show Dagbreek.

Kruie kraai koning

''Translated from the Afrikaans: "Herbs rule." The phrase plays on the old Afrikaans saying that herbs are natures cure for every and any ailment.'' Since 2003, Pienaar and Oom (uncle) Johannes Willemse (a

Griqua Griqua may refer to: * Griqua people * Griqua language or Xiri language * Griquas (rugby) Griquas (known as the Windhoek Draught Griquas for sponsorship reasons since April 2022) are a South African rugby union team that participates in the an ...

) in his late 1990s are regulars on

Amore Bekker Hetta Amor (Amore) Bekker (born 11 February 1965) is a South African radio personality, author, MC and columnist. She was the host of ''Tjailatyd'', an Afrikaans radio show broadcast by Radio Sonder Grense (R.S.G.)Radio Sonder Grense Radio Sonder Grense (RSG), i.e. Radio Without Borders, is an Afrikaans-language radio service run by the South African Broadcasting Corporation for the whole of South Africa. Since Afrikaans is one of South Africa's 11 official languages, the SAB ...

, (RSG)) and answers listeners questions on a weekly basis from location in the heart of the

Great Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe !Orakobab or Khoemana word ''ǃ’Aukarob'' "Hardveld") is a semi- desert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its ex ...

of South Africa. Pienaar received great acclaim in the

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

community thanks to the efforts of Amore Bekker and RSG with this program. Pienaars book: "Kruidjie roer my"" / "The Griqua's Apprentice" on folk remedies from the Griqua and

Afrikaner Afrikaners () are a South African ethnic group descended from Free Burghers, predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th and 18th centuries.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: ...

(

Boer Boers ( ; af, Boere ()) are the descendants of the Dutch-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape Colony, Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controll ...

) communities was published with the help of RSG. In her own words, the publication of ''The Griqua's Apprentice'' is "the first step in preserving the Karoo herb heritage for South Africa and the world"."Kruie Kraai Koning – About Oom Johannes and Antoinette"

Personal life

After contracting

cerebral malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, fatigue (medical), tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In se ...

on a trip to

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...

in West Africa in 2001 she was severely weakened and decided to stay on Theefontein (the farm of her second cousin Jacques Pienaar). She claims that the Karoo and its herbs healed her. Pienaar never married.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pienaar, Antoinette 1961 births Living people People from Kareeberg Local Municipality Afrikaner people South African actresses 20th-century South African women singers South African women writers Stellenbosch University alumni University of Cape Town alumni