ATTENTION: NEWS EDITORS
MEDIA ADVISORY
For immediate release
Tuesday, 07 October 2025
The University of Johannesburg (UJ) will confer an honorary doctoral degree on Antjie Krog legendary poet and public intellectual. This honour recognizes her courageous and creative lifetime efforts. The conferral will take place on Wednesday, 08 October 2025.
Conferral ceremony details:
Date: Wednesday, 08 October 2025
Time: 12:30 PM
Venue: UJ Auditorium, Auckland Park Kingsway Campus, Johannesburg
Short Bio of Ms. Antjie Krog:
Antjie Krog is an Afrikaans poet, writer, journalist and academic, best known for her poetry (primarily in Afrikaans, with some translated into English). She has published thirteen volumes of poetry and is known as the translator of the Nelson Mandela biography, Long Walk to Freedom (“Lang Pad na Vryheid”).
Krog has been awarded most of the prestigious awards for poetry, non-fiction, journalism and translation available in Afrikaans and English in South Africa. Internationally, she has been awarded the Stockholm prize from the Hiroshima Foundation for Peace and Culture (2000), the Open Society Prize from the Central European University and the Dutch Gouden Ganzenveer (2018) as well as Honorary Doctorates from the University of East London (UK) and other institutions.
Her work has been translated into English, Dutch, Italian, French, Spanish, Swedish, Serbian, Arabic and Chinese. Krog is one of the translators of poems in Stitching a Whirlwind (a multilingual collection of forty-two poems with the originals in Sesotho, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Setswana, Sepedi).
In her foreword, Gabeba Baderoon South African poet and academic, observes that, bearing in mind Southern Africa’s history of enforced separation, Krog’s poems “engage in an imaginative exchange across barriers of language, author and period, overcoming decades of riven conversations”. This observation is also true of the essence of Krog’s contribution as a poet, author, translator, academic and public intellectual. It is an indication of the nature of the golden thread in the woven fabric of Krog’s creative and academic work and projects, including her tireless activism over more than five decades towards breaking down barriers and creating new language, new conversation, and new spaces; as well as serving as the driving force and active initiator of translation projects of indigenous languages in Southern Africa.
Note to journalists:
Media interested in attending the conferral during the graduation session are requested to RSVP to me by Midday, Tuesday 07 October 2025. Space is limited and therefore RSVPs are essential.
Ends.
Issued by:
Masego Panyane
Strategic Communication
University Relations
Tel: +27 11 559 1571
Cell: +27 84 067 7528
