In preparation for returning to Capetown after 35 years or more I have read Antjie Krog’s ‘Country of My Skull'(Cape 1998);her account of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings between 1996 and 1998. It relates to the period of SA history from Mrach 1960 to december 1993, just before the first free elections were held in April ’94. Krog writes both as a poet and a journalist, a beautiful mix dealing with horrific and powerful images.
It’s taken me months to read all 279 pages, as each few pages triggered my own memories of the country I knew as a teenager hovering somewhere between my cherished Englishness and the love of the continent where I was born and which was suffering so terribly before my earnest young eyes.
Country of My Skull has been a tremendous reader for me and comes with high recommendations on the jacketcover from Nadine Gordimer, Andre Brink, Toni Morrison and Archbishop Tutu.
