When I came to South Africa with a German Abitur I did not know any Afrikaans. While studying for my BA with the intention of becoming a teacher I had to learn Afrikaans, so I enrolled for Afrikaans I at Wits. This was a rather off-putting experience for someone who had been weaned on contemporary European literature. All the more rewarding was my encounter in the sixties at UNISA with the Sestigers through my friendship with Wilhelm Knobel and Phil du Plessis. That was the time I discovered the exciting novels of André Brink (a contemporary, only a few months younger than me), Lobola vir die lewe, Die Ambassadeur, Orgie, Kennis van die aand, ? Oomblik in die wind, Gerugte van reën, ’n Droë wit seisoen. Suddenly there were a number of Afrikaans writers which I found fascinating. Therefore when I was dean of the faculty of arts from July 1987 to June 1990 I keenly supported the attempt to recruit André Brink from Rhodes University to UCT. Not only were we colleagues, but we contributed together with JM Coetzee and John Noyes to the theory of a literature course. In February 1993 I got to know André Brink even better when we were invited to take part in Belles Étrangères: Afrique du Sud at the Sorbonne in Paris. Together with Nadine Gordimer, Mazisi Kunene, Mtutuzeli Matshoba, Zakes Mda, Njabulo Ndebele, Mike Nicol, Malcolm Purkey, Wally Mongane Serote and Zoe Wicomb we opened the proceedings. I still remember how impressed I was, when he as the only one among us answered all the questions in flawless French. (I had tried to do that in Grenoble, but my school French was not up to the task.)
The news of his death on the flight from Belgium came as a great shock to me this morning. I sympathise with his family.
Related articles:
Peter Horn, 1998. "I am dead, you cannot read: André Brink’s On the Contrary." In: Derek Attridge and Rosemary Jolly (eds.), Writing South Africa. Literature, apartheid, and democracy, 1970-1995. Cambridge University Press: 29-42.
Peter Horn, 2013 I am dead: you cannot read. André Brink’s On the Contrary. Karina Magdalena Brink & Willie Burger (ed.): On the Contrary: Critical Responses to the Novels of André Brink. Protea Boekhuis. 460-479.
Peter Horn, Anette Horn 2005 "It is much more complicated and much more fluid than mere linearity." Female genealogies in André Brink's Imaginings of Sand. In: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde (42:1) 2005: 103-115.
Peter Horn, "Vota apha: Hotstix Mabuse, a bomb and a cross." In: André Brink (ed), SA 27 April 1994. An authors’ dairy; ’n Skrywersdagboek. Pretoria: Queillerie 1994, 61-65.
Peter Horn, "Living in a real life miracle." In: André Brink (ed.), 27 April One Year Later. Pretoria/Capetown: Queillerie 1995: 75-78.