A CASE OF LONGING & BELONGING: ARTHUR NORTJE

I read a very interesting blog written by Nafis, an Iranian studying in Canada. On her blog she describes her first trip to Canada as a happy and sad at the same time. She believes that sharing her stories on her blog will show others what kind of life they can expect when living abroad. What a coincidence that it reminded me of a South African poet, Arthur Nortje who also lived in Canada and died in exile in Oxford in the United Kingdom. Another coincidence is that he hails from my hometown, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

Arthur Nortje (1942-1970), however did not choose to go abroad as is the case with Nafis. The political situation in her country is unfortunately not too good at the moment.
Arthur Nortje was born to a coloured mother and white father in Oudtshoorn. He went to school in Port Elizabeth. His high school teacher was the acclaimed writer/activist Dennis Brutus. Nortje started writing poetry in the early 1960s, during a decisive period of twentieth-century South African history. He was never a political activist but protested through his poetry. Nortje later studied at the University College of the Western Cape (now called the University of the Western Cape) and received a scholarship to Jesus College, Oxford in the United Kingdom, where he obtained a BA degree.

In 1966 he left South Africa on an exit visa to join other South African political exiles in London. He emigrated to Canada in 1967, to teach in Hope, British Columbia and Toronto. He continued writing poetry that dealt extensively with his own personal alienation of being classified as coloured in apartheid South Africa. In the town of Hope in British Columbia, he still felt isolated and depressed and moved to Toronto. His stay in Toronto did not change his condition. He lived and taught in Canada from July 1967 to June 1969. Recent studies show that there is a strong relationship between living abroad and creativity. This is true in Nortje’s case; he used his sharp powers of observation to write about life and culture in Canada. During his exile years he deployed figures of separation and loss in his poetry. This could have been as a result of his alienation from his original or natural community because of apartheid.

In 1970 He decided to go to Oxford to work on a doctorate. He died shortly afterwards of a drug overdose. His poems were published posthumously in the collections Dead Roots (1973), Lonely Against the Light (1973) and Anatomy of dark (2000, Edited by Dirk Klopper, University of South Africa). Arthur Nortje was a complex character and tragic figure. His memory lives on in the hearts and minds of all the people whose lives were touched by his poetry and humanity.