UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — In April 1994, South Africa held its first elections following the end of Apartheid. This election marked the first time that people of all races were allowed to take part — the country’s first fully democratic election.
Antjie Krog, a South African writer, poet and scholar, chronicled the election and the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission in her award-winning book “Country of My Skull.” She will visit University Park to present a lecture on the topic on April 10 at 4 p.m. in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library.
Krog's lecture will be the culmination of a yearlong series on the 30th anniversary of democracy in South Africa. She will spend the week of April 8 at University Park visiting classes, meeting with faculty and participating in a week-long poetry translation workshop.
Krog covered the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for the South African Broadcasting Corporation from 1996 to 1998. The commission sought to examine the human rights violations committed during Apartheid, offering amnesty to some perpetrators and reparation to some of the victims.
“Country of My Skull” blends testimony from the commission and reporting to create a work that combines memoir, reporting and musings about the human condition. It was named to South Africa’s list of the 100 best books of the 20th century.
Krog’s lecture will recount how South Africa has evolved since the 1994 election and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, as well what the United States and other democracies can learn from going through the process of public remembrance.
She explored some of these themes in her books “A Change of Tongue” and “Begging to Be Black,” both considered to be part of an unofficial trilogy with “Country of My Skull” about South Africa’s search for identity and redemption in the post-Apartheid era.
Chris Beem, McCourtney Institute for Democracy managing director and research professor of political science, said the United States can learn a lot from South Africa’s journey over the past 30 years.
“South Africans understand that building a democracy in which everyone is free and equal is an arduous and never-ending task,” Beem said. “Krog’s work, in poetry and prose, shows that any healthy society begins with the recognition that we are all human, and that like it or not, we are all in this together.”
Krog is a professor at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa. She’s also taught at Columbia University, Ghent University in Belgium and Leiden University in the Netherlands.
Her visit is sponsored by the McCourtney Institute for Democracy and the School of International Affairs with additional support from the departments of African Studies and Comparative Literature. Her lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, visit democracy.psu.edu/events