Ingrid Jonker
South African poet
Died when: 31 years 303 days (382 months)Star Sign: Virgo
Ingrid Jonker (19 September 1933 – 19 July 1965) (OIS), was a South African poet who wrote and published in Afrikaans.Her poems, however, have been widely translated into other languages.
During the 1950s and 60s, which saw the Sharpeville massacre, the increasingly draconian enforcement of Apartheid laws, and escalating terrorism committed both by Government security forces and by the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress, Jonker chose to affiliate herself with Cape Town's racially mixed literary bohemia, which gathered around her fellow Afrikaner poet Uys Krige in the beach-side suburb of Clifton.
In both her poems and in newspaper interviews, Jonker denounced the ruling National Party's racial policies and the increasing censorship of literature and the media.
This brought her into open conflict with her father, a widely respected Member of Parliament for the ruling Party.In 1965, Jonker's turbulent early life caused by a broken home and her father's public rejection of her and her sister,including a failed marriage and subsequent unsucessfull relationships including poverty, led to her depression and final suicide.
Even so, Jonker has reached iconic status in post-Apartheid South Africa and is often compared with Sylvia Plath and Marilyn Monroe.
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