Abstract:
In July 1964 the list of banned publications in South Africa stood at 12 000 titles and increased
rapidly thereafter. Between 1955 and 1971 thousands of titles were burned in municipal ovens. In
this article the second volume of poetry of the poet and artist Wopko Jensma (1939–1993?), where
white is the colour, where black is the number (1974), is used as a case study on the influence
of censorship legislation on South African literature. The article will highlight the status of Jensma
as a writer, the course of the sensorshop case against his book, its possible effect on Jensma’s position
in South African literature as well as a reflection on the effect of sensorship on canonisation. In
conclusion the revision of Afrikaans literary history as well as the importance of book history against
the background of new information about its writer is considered.
