Antjie Krog, internationally acclaimed author of Country of my Skull , was appointed as an Extraordinary Professor in the Arts Faculty earlier this year. Krog, an accomplished Afrikaans poet, became well known as one of the SABC radio journalists who reported on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings in the mid 1990s.

Her best-selling book is an account of her TRC experience, and has recently been followed up by A Change of Tongue , a book that deals with South Africa's recent social and cultural transformation. Both texts featured on the SA Library's list of the ten most influential books published over the past ten years that focus on issues of democracy.

Prof. Stanley Ridge, the Dean of the Arts Faculty, said that the university was honoured to have someone of her stature at UWC, and valued above all her creativity and her ability to bring contemporary South Africa into critical review.

"'Professor' is strange," Krog admits, "but it is wonderful to be at UWC which is such an intellectually enriching environment." After years of being immersed in the

practice of writing and reporting, she values the opportunity to "engage more theoretically" with issues. "There are wonderful resources at UWC, and a wealth of knowledge and expertise," says Krog. Even the library comes in for praise: "It's an excellent library, for example I found wonderful holdings of old German and Dutch books."

As an Afrikaans writer translating her own work into English, Krog likes working on a multi-lingual campus. "But if you want to communicate to all South Africans, English is the language," she insists. "I'm not an English writer, but a South African writer who writes in Afrikaans. Through translation I create an English with an Afrikaans sound which carries with it my heritage."

Krog has recently completed a biographical essay on J.M. Coetzee that will appear in a book edited by Kader Asmal on South Africa's Nobel Prize winners. Krog is not daunted by the task of trying to coming to grips with Coetzee: "Writing is always a big risk. If you're not prepared to be destroyed by the book it's not good writing."

Prof. Krog's presence at UWC has stimulated a variety of TRC related research. One of the projects she has assisted with is a retranslation of key TRC testimonies. A research team consisting of Ms Zannie Bock (Linguistics), Ms Nosisi Zantsi (Xhosa) and two Linguistics Honours students, Mr S. Metula and Mr N. Mazwi, have transcribed and translated the testimonies of two of the widows of "the Cradock Four", which were originally given in Xhosa and simultaneously interpreted into English.

A comparison of the new translation with that of the official TRC version has revealed a number of significant instances where the original meaning is lost, with implications for the historical record. The research was presented at the Intercultural Communication Conference at Stellenbosch University in September 2004.