Toek Blignaut (17 May 1922 – 5 January 2007) was a South African writer. She wrote over 80 books and 200 short stories. She interviewed heart surgeon

Christiaan Barnard Christiaan Neethling Barnard (8 November 1922 – 2 September 2001) was a South African cardiac surgeon who performed the world's first human-to-human heart transplant operation. On 3 December 1967, Barnard transplanted the heart of accident-v ...

and she made the first interview with

Rain Queen Queen Modjadji, or the Rain Queen, is the hereditary queen of Balobedu, a people of the Limpopo Province of South Africa. The Rain Queen is believed to have special powers, including the ability to control the clouds and rainfall. Modjadji Ro ...

Mokope Modjadji Mokope Modjadji V (27 April 193728 June 2001) was the fifth Rain Queen of the Balobedu tribe in the Limpopo Province of South Africa from 1981 until her death in 2001. Life Mokope Modjadji was very traditional in her role as Rain Queen. She li ...

. Blignaut was an

agony aunt An advice column is a column in a question and answer format. Typically, a (usually anonymous) reader writes to the media outlet with a problem in the form of a question, and the media outlet provides an answer or response. The responses are wr ...

at 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 ...

teenage magazine ''

Rooi Rose ''Rooi Rose'' (lit. "Red Roses") was an Afrikaans-language monthly women's magazine published in South Africa by Caxton Magazines. It was one of the earliest magazines in the country. The magazine was in circulation between 1942 and May 2020. His ...

'' where she rose to be vice-editor.

Life

Blignaut was born in

Bloemfontein Bloemfontein, ( ; , "fountain of flowers") also known as Bloem, is one of South Africa's three capital cities and the capital of the Free State (province), Free State province. It serves as the country's judicial capital, along with legisla ...

in 1922 as Johanna Marthina Sophia Venter. Her parents owned a farm in the Free State and she attended school near the Kaffer River. She grew to a height of . She was engaged to be married but instead married a pen friend, Jacobus Nicolaas Francois (Jaap) Blignaut, in 1944. They were to have two daughters who in time would also become writers. Whilst she was caring for her children she wrote in her spare time. Initially, she worked as a freelance but she was offered a permanent position at ''Rooi Rose'' magazine. She was an advice columnist at this Afrikaans teenage magazine where she rose to be vice-editor. One of her tasks was to conduct an interview with the heart surgeon Christiaan Barnard after he made the first

heart transplant A heart transplant, or a cardiac transplant, is a surgical transplant procedure performed on patients with end-stage heart failure or severe coronary artery disease when other medical or surgical treatments have failed. , the most common proce ...

. Her most popular book was ''Donker op Nebo'' (1970), her first written in Afrikaans. She wrote over 80 books and 200 short stories. She also conducted the first interview granted with the Rain Queen Mokope Modjadji. Blignaut died in Bloemfontein in 2007 of a heart attack.

Selected works

* ''Donker Skaduwees Oor Rheinheim.'' Johannesburg : Perskor, 1963. * ''Om Die Son Te Aanskou.'' Cape Town : Nasional Boekhandel, 1968. *''Donker op Nebo'', Pretoria : Van der Walt, 1970. *''Uit Hirdie Donker Nag'' Pretoria : Van der Walt (J.P.), 1975. * ''Jy, Prins Van Verre.'' 1978. * '' 'N Tyd om lief te he'', Randburg : Ons Eie Boekklub, 1981. *''In hierdie silwerkruik'' Pretoria : Van der Walt, 1989. *''Pad na Monomotapa'' Pretoria : Unibook, 1990.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blignaut, Toek 1922 births 2007 deaths People from Bloemfontein 20th-century South African women writers 20th-century South African writers