DIE SWERFJARE VAN POPPIE NONGENA

297pp., paperback, Cape Town, (1978) 2019

A fictionalised biography. Winner of the W.A Hofmeyr Prize, the Louis Luyt Prize and the CNA Prize. Translated into English by Elsa Joubert and first published in 1980 under the title The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena.

An Afrikaans-speaking Xhosa woman tries to keep her family together while living under the inhumane pass laws of the apartheid government.

Adapted into a stage play and made into a film.

Elsa Joubert (1922-2020) is the author of Ons Wag Op die Kaptein (Eugène Marais Prize), Bonga (CNA Prize), and Die Reis van Isobelle (W.A. Hofmeyr Prize and Hertzog Prize). Her autobiography, Reisiger (2009), won the University of Johannesburg Prize, the Recht Malan Prize and the Louis Hiemstra Prize.