'They never wept, the men of my race': Antjie Krog's Country of my skull and the white South African signature

Antjie Krog's Country of my Skull is a text that, in terms of the audience to whom it is addressed, heralds a new direction in writing by white South Africans. The addressee of this text is twofold: Krog directs her work at both her traditional Afrikaans-speaking audience, and at a new audience by whom she wishes to be accepted. In this article l discuss two trends in the text. On the one hand, Krog actively distances herself from her heritage and Afrikaner background. On the other hand, she acknowledges that she can never acquire a voice that does not contain traces of this past and heritage. The voice in the text is highly self-conscious, with Krog calling to her Afrikaans-speaking audience to witness her distancing herself from them. This is done in an attempt to enter what she calls the country of her skull, a country into which she wishes to be invited by black South Africans. The text indicates that, for Krog, this imagined entry is, as yet, not a possibility.