The national question in Antjie Krog's transformation trilogy

Abstract

This article explores the claim that the South African writer Antjie Krog is in essence asking the National Question in what I have termed her “transformation trilogy”: Country of My Skull (1998); A Change of Tongue (2003); and Begging to Be Black (2009). In writing about issues like “race”, identity and belonging in these texts, Krog is asking, “[t]o whom does the South African nation belong?” – a question that was central to debates about the National Question by liberation movements during apartheid. Although the “new” South Africa arguably is very different from the new “nation” that had been imagined, the National Question remains of importance. A postcolonial reading of the transformation trilogy encourages a focus on the National Question and the factors that complicate it. Existing studies about the theme of nationhood in Krog’s work do not draw connections with older discourses on nation and nationalism in South Africa.

Hierdie artikel ondersoek die stelling dat Antjie Krog in wese besig is met die Nasionale Vraagstuk in haar “transformasie-trilogie”: Country of My Skull (1998); A Change of Tongue (2003); en Begging to Be Black (2009). In haar verkenning van kwessies soos “ras”, identiteit en om te behoort in dié tekste, is Krog besig om te vra, “aan wie behoort die Suid-Afrikaanse nasie?” – ’n vraag wat sentraal gestaan het tot beredenering oor die Nasionale Vraagstuk deur bevrydingsorganisasies tydens apartheid. Hoewel die situasie in die “nuwe” Suid-Afrika stellig baie anders daar uitsien as hoe die nuwe “nasie” verbeel is, is die Nasionale Vraagstuk van blywende belang. ’n Postkoloniale benadering tot die transformasie-trilogie moedig ’n ondersoek na die Nasionale Vraagstuk aan, asook die faktore wat dit kompliseer. Bestaande studies oor die tema van nasieskap in die tekste van die trilogie slaan nie ’n verband tussen Krog se werk en ouer diskoerse oor nasie en nasionalisme in Suid-Afrika nie.