Nortje, Arthur (Writer)

(1942-1970) poet

Arthur Nortje was born in the town of oudt-shoorn, Cape Province, South Africa. His mother was unmarried, and Nortje never knew who his father was. He attended school on scholarship and showed an early interest and propensity for writing poetry. In 1961, he moved to Cape Town, where he attended the University College of the Western Cape. The sharp class and racial distinctions that existed in the university led Nortje to resent the arbitrary nature of social segregation. He belonged to the “colored” group, the offspring of parents with mixed racial backgrounds, and his distaste for the opulent upper class is clear in his poetry, such as in “Thumbing a Lift” (1962), which won a Mbari Poetry Prize from Ibadan University.

Nortje briefly taught high school in Port Elizabeth before going to oxford University in 1965, again on scholarship, one sponsored by the politically radical National Union of South African Students. After earning his B.A., he moved to British Columbia in Canada in 1967 to teach and then returned to London in 1970 to embark on his postgraduate study. He died on December 8.

Loneliness is perhaps the most acute emotion that surfaces in all Nortje’s poems, which also speak of desolation and loss. His sense of estrangement from his homeland, following his self-imposed exile from South Africa, and his unfortunate encounter with love resonate through his characters and their experiences. Nortje’s unfulfilled love for a young woman who separated from him to migrate to Canada, left him in despair. Discrimination intensified his anguish, loneliness, and alienation, which he depicts in political poems that condemn apartheid and its inherent hypocrisy. For example, in Dead Roots (1973), Nortje’s first collection, a number of poems, such as “Continuation,” relate his deterioration into depression and his dependency on drugs. In another poem, “The Long Silence,” Nortje poignantly contrasts the forlorn resignation of the oppressed Africans with the “success” of the apartheid government. Though Nortje’s literary career was brief, he successfully brought to the world a voice and a vision that, while pained and pessimistic, were very realistic.

Other Works by Arthur Nortje

The Collected Poems of Arthur Nortje. Edited by Dirk Klopper. Pretoria: University of South Africa Press, 2000. Deep Roots. London: Heinemann, 1973.

Works about Arthur Nortje

Berthoud, Jacques. “Poetry and Exile: The Case of Arthur Nortje.” English in Africa, 11:1 (1984). Bunn, David. “‘Some Alien Native Land’: Arthur Nortje, Literary History, and the Body in Exile.” World Literature Today, 70 (Winter 1996). Dameron, Charles. “Arthur Nortje, Craftsman for his Muse.” In Christopher Heywood, ed., Aspects of South African Literature. London: Heinemann, 1976. Leitch, Raymond. “Nortje: Poet At Work.” African Literature Today, 10 (1979).

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