Francois Alwyn (Frans) Venter (27 November 1916 – 8 July 1997) was a prominent Afrikaans writer of the 20th century.
Swart pelgrim on the other hand relates the experiences and observations of a migrant from a black rural setting to the industrialised, white-dominated environment.
He also wrote popular fiction, under the pseudonyms Meiring Fouché, Elske te Water, René Stegmann and Marius de Jongh.
In 1967 he had to leave the northern Cape due to declining health and settled in Strand, meaning to write full-time.
Venter received the Hertzog Prize for prose in 1976 for his novels Swart pelgrim and Geknelde land.