Mattheus Uys Krige (4 February 1910 – 10 August 1987) was a South African writer of novels, short stories, poems and plays in Afrikaans and English.
Later in his life, Krige served as a mentor and father figure to the Afrikaans literary movement known as die Sestigers; whom he convinced into speaking truth to power about the 1948–1994 rule of the National Party and its policies of both Apartheid and censorship in South Africa.
Even though the Krige family believed in Afrikaner nationalism, "the home atmosphere was broadminded and creative, his mother was a talented writer and his younger brother a leading painter.
Whilst in France he played rugby for a team in Toulon, was a swimming coach on the Côte d'Azur, wrote poems and penned freelance articles for the Afrikaans press.
[5] During a discussion with Krige in the spring of 1933, Mary Campbell, "who had read the memoirs of Saint Theresa of Avila when she was six and had a preconceived idea of everything Spanish", recommended moving to Spain.
Inspired, according Jack Cope, by Krige's upbringing within Afrikaner Calvinism and its traditional hostility to an allegedly corrupt Pre-Reformation Church, Lied van die fascistiese bomwerpers also leveled savage attacks against Roman Catholicism.
[13] According to Jack Cope, "The poem starts on a note of military pride – the eyes of the Fascist pilots fixed on themselves in their joyful and triumphant, their holy task.
Krige responded by asking whether South African Catholics approved of the Nationalist's dismantling of what he considered the lawful Spanish Government or in the ongoing White Terror.
[13] After the National Party took power over South Africa in 1948, Krige actively campaigned as part of the Torch Commando alongside former RAF flying ace Sailor Malan and many other Afrikaner World War II veterans against the new Government's plans to disenfranchise Coloured voters.
[16] In May 1952, Krige had lunch in London with fellow South African dissident writers Roy Campbell, Laurens van der Post, Enslin du Plessis, and Alan Paton.
During the lunch, the five men composed and signed an open letter to the South African Government, in which they again denounced the ruling National Party's plans to disenfranchise Coloured voters.
[10] Beginning during the late 1950s and '60s, Krige served as a mentor to many fellow members of Cape Town's racially mixed literary bohemia, which gathered in the beach-side suburb of Clifton.
[15] According to Uys Krige's friend Jack Cope, "He was essentially a lyric poet, his subjects personal, often romantic, sentimental; his technique despite a full acquaintance with Dada, Surrealism and other schools remained traditional, helped along with homely anecdotes and plentiful rhyme.
"[12] According to Jack Cope, Krige's linguistic and literary talent combined with his passion for French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese literature made him the principal translator from Romance languages into Afrikaans during the 20th century.
English-language poets of the country such as Dan Jacobson and Charles Eglington have agreed that Krige's versions are in nearly every instance closer in spirit and tone to the originals than those yet achieved in English either in Britain or the United States.