OWN CORRESPONDENT
In a media release under the bane of SAJBD National Chairman Mary Kluk, Gordimer is called “a brave, principled woman who used her remarkable literary gifts to speak out on behalf of the oppressed in South Africa and expose the injustices to which they were subjected.
“In doing so, she gave voice to the pain and plight of millions of those whom the apartheid system had silenced, and that voice came to be heard with ever-greater resonance throughout the world.”
Giving Gordimer’s background, the statement spoke of her being the daughter of Jewish immigrants, who became aware at an early age of the iniquitous nature of the society into which she was born, and never wavered in her commitment to opposing it.
“In a series of powerful novels, she laid bare the evils of racism and racial discrimination, showing with unmatched sensitivity and insight not only the harm it inflicted on the oppressed, but also how it brutalised and thus demeaned the oppressors.
“For this, she gained international acclaim, culminating in her receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature.
“Nadine Gordimer became an iconic figure in the struggle for democracy in South Africa. She was an inspiring figure for her own generation, and will undoubtedly continue to be a source of
