Ronelda Kamfer (born 16 June 1981 in Blackheath,

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

, South Africa) is a

Kaaps Kaaps (, meaning 'of the Cape'), also known as Afrikaaps, is a West Germanic African language that evolved in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Its status as a sister language of Afrikaans or a dialect of Afrikaans is unclear. Since th ...

-language South African poet and novelist.''Oor die skrywer'' (About the writer, in Afrikaans) in A novel.

Life

Kamfer grew up staying since the age of three with her grandparents, farm workers in

Grabouw Grabouw is a town located in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Grabouw is located some 65 km south-east of Cape Town, over Sir Lowry's Pass from Somerset West, along the N2 highway.The town is the commercial centre for the vast Elgin ...

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

, South Africa, in a region known for its orchards and vineyards, located 65 kilometers south-east of Cape Town. She then returned to her parents, who, when she was nine years old, settled in

Eerste River, Western Cape Eerste River (Eersterivier in Afrikaans, meaning "first river") is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa and a suburb of the City of Cape Town. It forms part of the Oostenberg subregion of the city situated behind the Stellenbosch/Vlaeberg Hi ...

, a township of Cape Town that had many social problems such as a gang culture. This experience profoundly marked her life and her writing. She went to school at Eersterivier Sekondêr and obtained an

Honours degree Honours degree has various meanings in the context of different degrees and education systems. Most commonly it refers to a variant of the undergraduate bachelor's degree containing a larger volume of material or a higher standard of study, or ...

in Afrikaans and Dutch languages at the

University of the Western Cape The University of the Western Cape (UWC) is a public research university in Bellville, near Cape Town, South Africa. The university was established in 1959 by the South African government as a university for Coloured people only. Other un ...

in 2011 (with

Antjie Krog Antjie Krog (born 23 October 1952) is a South African writer and academic, best known for her Afrikaans poetry, her reporting on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and her 1998 book '' Country of My Skull''. In 2004, she joined the Arts f ...

as one of her professors) and a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in Creative writing at

Rhodes University Rhodes University is a public university, public research university located in Makhanda, Eastern Cape, Makhanda (Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, ...

in 2019. Kamfer held various jobs, including as waitress, office worker, nurse, while writing. Kamfer published her first poems in

anthologies In book publishing Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed work ...

and magazines in South Africa and the Netherlands. Among the authors who influenced her, she mentions

Derek Walcott Sir Derek Alton Walcott (23 January 1930 – 17 March 2017) was a Saint Lucian poet and playwright. He received the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature. His works include the Homeric epic poem ''Omeros'' (1990), which many critics view "as Walcot ...

Charles Bukowski Henry Charles Bukowski ( ; born Heinrich Karl Bukowski, ; August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambience of his adopted ...

and Antjie Krog. Kamfer is married to poet, illustrator and

comic-strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics ter ...

creator Nathan Trantraal; they have one child and live in Makhanda.

Awards

In 2009, Kamfer won – with Loftus Marais – the

Eugène Marais Prize The Eugène Marais Prize is a South African literary prize awarded by the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns for a first or early publication in Afrikaans. In 1971 it was renamed after the Afrikaans poet and researcher Eugène Marais. ...

(Eugene Maraisprys) awarded by the South African Academy. In 2016, she was awarded the Jan Rabie en Marjorie Wallace writer's grant prize.

Works

Kamfer's work include:

Poetry

Collections of poetry

* (Translated title: "Now that the dogs are sleeping".) * * *

French translations

* ''Missives'' n° 253, ''Littératures d'Afrique du Sud'', June 2009, Paris. * * ''Confluences Poétiques'' n° 4, April 2011, Paris. * * Special issue of the journal ''Bacchanales''. * ''Po&sie'' n° 143, June 2013, Paris: Éditions Belin. * ''Zone sensible'' n°1, June 2014, "Poésie et événement", Biennale internationale des poètes en Val-de-Marne, Ivry. * In special issue ''Afriques 2''. *Chinatown, édition bilingue afrikaans-français, translated by Pierre-Marie Finkelstein, Éditions des Lisières, Curnier, 2023 (https://www.editionsdeslisieres.com

English translations

* Extract from two collections of poetry with an introduction by

André Brink André Philippus Brink (29 May 1935 – 6 February 2015) was a South African novelist, essayist and poet. He wrote in both Afrikaans and English and taught English at the University of Cape Town. In the 1960s Brink, Ingrid Jonker, Etienne Lerou ...

Prose

* * A novel.

Reception

Burger's critique places Kamfer's use of the ocean as a literary device within the context of other South African poets, such as

Koleka Putuma Koleka Putuma (born in Port Elizabeth, 22 March 1993) is a South African queer poet and theatre-maker. She was nominated one of Okay Africa's most influential women in 2019. Biography Putuma was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa in 1993. She ...

References

Secondary literature

External links

* Search for "Kamfer". * Search for "ronelda kamfer". English translations of four poems.

Videos

* . Video duration 6m 43s. Uploader:

Nederlands Letterenfonds The Nederlands Letterenfonds ("Dutch Foundation for Literature") is a Dutch organization that promotes Dutch literature at home and abroad. The Letterenfonds represents Dutch authors at such events as the Frankfurt Book Fair, and awards a number of ...

, 2012. Kamfer explains her collection of poetry ''grond/Santekraam'' translated into Dutch als ''Santenkraam'' (2012), and a project with her husband for a graphic novel. Retrieved 7 March 2024. * . Video duration 1m 21m. In Afrikaans with English translation. Uploader poetryinternational, 2021. Retrieved 7 March 2024. * Video duration 1m 24s. Uploader InZync Poetries, 2016. Retrieved 7 March 2024. Kamfer reads her poem Bellville at The InZync Poetry Sessions. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kamfer, Ronelda 21st-century South African poets 21st-century South African women writers 1981 births Afrikaans-language writers Living people South African women poets South African writers