“[Om] nou hier op oordeelsdag bontbokke te kom tel ”1 – Wopko Jensma en die sensuurwetgewing van die jare sewentig

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.