Francois Alwyn (Frans) Venter (27 November 1916 – 8 July 1997) was a prominent

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 ...

writer of the 20th century. His novels explored biblical religious themes, or cultural identities in the South African context. He also examined relations between white and black more closely in ''Wit oemfaan'', which describes a white boy's discovery of the customs of the Zulu nation. ''Swart pelgrim'' on the other hand relates the experiences and observations of a migrant from a black rural setting to the industrialised, white-dominated environment. He may be best known for his novel ''Geknelde land'' (

for Afflicted land), which describes the

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...

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 ...

community living under Xhosa raids and the English governance of the 19th century.

Early life

He was born in

Hopetown Hopetown is a town which lies at the edge of the Great Karoo in South Africa's Northern Cape province. It is situated on an arid slope leading down to the Orange River. The first diamond discovered in South Africa, the Eureka Diamond, was fo ...

, and grew up on his parents' farm in the

Britstown Britstown is a small farming town situated in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, in the Pixley ka Seme District Municipality, Emthanjeni Local Municipality. The town is named after Hans Brits who settled here after he accompanied David Li ...

district. He attended rural schools at first, before attending the Strydenburg Secondary School, and matriculating from Hopetown High School in 1934. He studied 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 ...

and commenced a career as journalist in 1938.

Adult career

For 25 years he worked as a journalist in Cape Town, Pretoria, Windhoek and Johannesburg. He also wrote popular fiction, under the pseudonyms Meiring Fouché, Elske te Water, René Stegmann and Marius de Jongh.John Christoffel Kannemeyer, ''Geskiedenis van die Afrikaanse literatuur'', 2 vols., Volume 2, 2nd ed. Pretoria: Academica, 1984,
p. 50
. In 1960 he began farming in the

Kenhardt Kenhardt (founded 1868) is a small town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. This little town is about 120 km from Upington, the largest town in the area. History On 27 December 1868, special magistrate Maximillian Jackson with a po ...

district near

Vanwyksvlei Vanwyksvlei or Van Wyk's Vlei (Afrikaans for ''Van Wyk's Marsh'') is a small town in the Northern Cape, South Africa. __NOTOC__ Name The town is named after a farmer called Van Wyk, and the Afrikaans suffix ''vlei'', meaning 'pond', 'marsh'. H ...

, where his parents had resided since the 1930s. In 1967 he had to leave the northern Cape due to declining health and settled in

Strand Strand may refer to: Topography *The flat area of land bordering a body of water, a: ** Beach ** Shoreline * Strand swamp, a type of swamp habitat in Florida Places Africa * Strand, Western Cape, a seaside town in South Africa * Strand Street ...

, meaning to write full-time. In 1970, however, he returned to farming, this time as viticulturist at

Vredendal Vredendal is a town in the northern Olifants River Valley in the Western Cape province of South Africa, with a population (according to the 2001 census) of 16,164 people. It is situated north of Cape Town on the banks of the Olifants River at th ...

in the Olifants river valley. In 1976 when his health deteriorated again, he retired for good from farming and returned to

Recognition

Venter received the

Hertzog Prize The Hertzog Prize (or Hertzogprys) is an annual award given to Afrikaans writers by the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns (South African Academy for the Sciences and Art), formerly the South African Academy for Language, Literature a ...

for prose in 1976 for his novels ''Swart pelgrim'' and ''Geknelde land''. For ''Kambrokind'' he received the ''ruitertrofee'' ('equestrian trophy') of the Suid-Afrikaanse Federasie van Rapportryerskorpse in 1982. In 1981 the

University of Port Elizabeth The University of Port Elizabeth (UPE) was a public university located in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. UPE was founded on 31 January 1964, by an act of parliament, and held its first academic year in 1965. It off ...

awarded him the

honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

D. Litt in recognition for his writings. In 1996 he received the Andrew Murray Prize for Literature. He was in addition a member of the

Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde The Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde (English "Society of Dutch Literature", often abbreviated ''MNL'') is a prestigious and exclusive literary society. The MNL was established in Leiden in 1766 and is still located there. At the moment, ...

(a Dutch society for literature). F.A. Venter died in 1997.

Writings

The English names given, are translated from Afrikaans, and are not available under those titles. * ''Die geheim van die berg'' (The mystery of the mountain) (1944/1958) (

young adult novel Young adult fiction (YA) is a category of fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age. While the genre is primarily targeted at adolescents, approximately half of YA readers are adults. The subject matter and genres of YA correlate ...

) * ''Gebondenes'' (The fettered) (1949) * ''Eenderse morge'' (Similar morgen) (1950) * ''Die drosters'' (The deserters) (1952) * ''Swart pelgrim'' (Black pilgrim) (1952) * ''Die tollenaar'' (The tax collector) (1954) * ''Man van Ciréne'' (Man of Cyrene) (1957) * ''Geknelde land'' (Afflicted land) (1960) * ''Offerland'' (Land of sacrifice) (1963) * ''Werfjoernaal'' (Yard journal) (1965) * ''Wit oemfaan'' (White umfane) (1965) (young-adult novel) * ''Gelofteland'' (Land of the covenant) (1966) * ''Bedoelde land'' (Intended land) (1968) * ''Die rentmeesters'' (The landlords) (1969) * ''Water'' (Water) (1970) Commissioned by the Ministry of Water * ''Die middag voel na warm as'' (The afternoon feels like warm ash) (1974) * ''Kambro-kind'' (Kambro child) (1979) * ''Die koning se wingerd'' (The king's vineyard) (1984) * ''Die ou man en die duif'' (The old man and the dove) (1990) * ''Die keer toe ek my naam vergeet het'' (The time when I forgot my name) (1995) * ''Van Botterkraal na Altena: hoogtepunte uit vier outobiografiese romans'' (From Botterkraal to Altena: highlights from four autobiographical novels) (1996)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Venter, F.A. South African male novelists South African journalists South African people of Dutch descent Afrikaner people South African expatriates in Namibia 1916 births Afrikaans-language writers 1997 deaths Hertzog Prize winners for prose 20th-century South African novelists 20th-century South African male writers 20th-century journalists