Vera Wülfing-Leckie (1954 – 8 February 2021) was a German-born British

homeopath Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths or homeopathic physicians, believe that a substance that ...

and a

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

of African literature. She lived in Africa for much of her adult life, and translated, among others, works by

Boubacar Boris Diop Boubacar Boris Diop (born 26 October 1946) is a Senegalese novelist, journalist and screenwriter. His best known work, ''Murambi, le livre des ossements'' (translated into English as ''Murambi: The Book of Bones''), is the fictional account ...

from Senegal and

Véronique Tadjo Véronique Tadjo (born 1955) is a writer, poet, novelist, and artist from Ivory Coast, Côte d'Ivoire. Having lived and worked in many countries within the African continent and African diaspora, diaspora, she feels herself to be Pan-Africanism, ...

from Côte d'Ivoire. Diop's novel ''Doomi Golo: The Hidden Notebooks'' was on the shortlist for the 2017

Best Translated Book Award The Best Translated Book Award was an American literary award that recognized the previous year's best original translation into English, one book of poetry and one of fiction. It was inaugurated in 2008 and was conferred by Three Percent, the onl ...

Life

Living in Germany and the UK

Vera Wülfing was born in

Tübingen Tübingen (; ) is a traditional college town, university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer (Neckar), Ammer rivers. about one in ...

, Germany. During World War II, her father Gert Wülfing, a physician, was a prisoner of war in Russia. Her mother Ellen, also a physician, escaped the Russians from what later became East Germany to the West. Wülfing attended primary school in Tübingen. When her parents opened a practice in

Lörrach Lörrach () is a city in southwest Germany, in the valley of the Wiese, close to the French and the Swiss borders. It is the district seat of the district of Lörrach in Baden-Württemberg. It is the home of a number of large employers, inclu ...

, close to the Swiss border where they felt safer, she went to the gymnasium. She received a scholarship to study in England in 1977, and studied classics and modern languages at Oxford's

Wadham College Wadham College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy Wadham, a ...

. She met

Ross Leckie Peter Ross Leckie (born 6 May 1957) is a Scottish writer of historical novels, best known for his ''Carthage'' trilogy. Biography Leckie attended Drumtochty Castle Preparatory School and Fettes College. He studied classics at Corpus Christi C ...

, also a student there, whom she married in 1979. Their son Douglas was born the same year, and the family moved to Scotland in 1981, where they ran a farm. Daughter Xenia was born in 1983, and son Patrick in 1985.

Living in South Africa and Senegal

Wülfing-Leckie began studies in medicine at the

University of Dundee The University of Dundee is a public research university based in Dundee, Scotland. It was founded as a university college in 1881 with a donation from the prominent Baxter family of textile manufacturers. The institution was, for most of its ...

, where she became friends with

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

ns committed to fighting

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

, such as

Edwin Cameron Edwin Cameron (born 15 February 1953 in Pretoria) is a retired judge who served as a Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. He is well known for his HIV/AIDS and gay-rights activism and was hailed by Nelson Mandela as "one of Sou ...

. The

Chernobyl disaster On 26 April 1986, the no. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine), exploded. With dozens of direct casualties, it is one of only ...

in 1986 left her worried about the family's health, and planning to seek more safety in the southern hemisphere. The family moved to South Africa in 1989. A daughter, Alexia, was born in 1991. The couple divorced, and her husband returned to England. Wülfing-Leckie stayed and studied alternative medicine at the

University of Johannesburg The University of Johannesburg, colloquially known as UJ, is a public university A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant fundi ...

in 1997, completing a doctorate in

homeopathy Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths or homeopathic physicians, believe that a substance that ...

. She opened her own practice in Johannesburg. Boubacar Diop IMG 2389

Wülfing-Leckie met

, a Senegalese novelist. She moved to Senegal in 2009, where she practised homeopathy, but also began to translate literature. She translated texts by Diop to English, in 2014 the political essay ''L'Afrique au-delà du miroir'' to ''Africa Beyond the Mirror''. In 2016, she translated the novel ''Doomi Golo'', first written in the

Wolof language Wolof ( ; , ) is a Niger–Congo language spoken by the Wolof people in much of the West African subregion of Senegambia that is split between the countries of Senegal, The Gambia and Mauritania. Like the neighbouring languages Serer and Fula, ...

. Together with El Hadji Moustapha Diop, she translated mainly from a French version, ''Les Petits de guenon'', and the English novel was published as ''Doomi Golo: The Hidden Notebooks'' by the

Michigan State University Press Michigan State University Press is the scholarly publishing arm of Michigan State University. Scholarly publishing at the university significantly predates the establishment of its press in 1947. By the 1890s the institution's Experiment Stations ...

in the series African Humanities and the Arts. The book was on the shortlist for the 2017

. She translated a novel by

, an author from Côte d'Ivoire, into English as ''In the Company of Men''.

Health and death

Wülfing-Leckie was described by her former husband, Ross Leckie, as having suffered from depression for many years. Vera Wülfing-Leckie died in the UK while visiting her children, at age 66.

References

External links

Vera Wülfing-Leckie
goodreads.com
Africa Beyond the Mirror
Ayebia Clarke 2014
Best Translated Book Award 2017 shortlists
McNally Robinson 20 April 2017 * Ann Morgan
Book of the month: Boubacar Boris Diop
ayearofreadingtheworld.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Wulfing Leckie, Vera 1954 births 2021 deaths People from Tübingen German women writers Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford Alumni of the University of Dundee German emigrants to the United Kingdom British expatriates in Senegal British expatriates in South Africa University of Johannesburg alumni British translators British women writers German homeopaths German translators