In 1992, a gang leader was shot dead by an ANC member in Kroonstad. The murder weapon was then hidden on Antjie Krog’s stoep. In Begging to Be Black, Krog begins by exploring her position in this controversial case. From there the book ranges widely in scope, both in time - reaching back to the days of Basotho king Moshoeshoe - and in space - as we follow Krog’s experiences as a research fellow in Berlin, far from the Africa that produced her.
Begging to Be Black is a book of journeys - moral, historical, philosophical and geographical. These form strands that Krog interweaves and sets in conversation with each other, as she explores questions of change and becoming, coherency and connectedness, before drawing them closer together as the book approaches its powerful...
Antjie Krog is gebore en word groot in die Vrystaat. Sy was sewentien toe haar eerste digbundel verskyn. Hierna volg ’n verdere dertien bundels. Sy was redakteur van die politieke tydskrif Die Suid-Afrikaan en werk later as radiojoernalis. Sy is internasionaal veral bekend vir haar boek Country of my skull, ’n persoonlike verslag van die Waarheid-en-versoeningskommissie. Vir haar joernalistieke werk is sy met die Pringle-toekenning bekroon. Sy is ook die skrywer van ’n Ander tongval en Begging to be black. Krog ontvang die belangrikste toekennings in die genres waarin sy werk: poësie, niefiksie en vertaling, onder meer die Eugène Marais-prys, die Hertzogprys, die Alan Paton-prys en die Olive Schreiner-prys. Sy is vereer met die Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation se Stockholm-toekenning, die Sentraal-Europese Universiteit se Open Society Prize en die Nederlandse Gouden Ganzenveer. Sy is getroud met die argitek John Samuel.
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