The renowned Afrikaans writer, Wilma Johanna Stockenström, was born on 7 August 1933 in Napier in the Overberg district, where she also completed high school in 1949. Wilma is one of the most important multi-award-winning Afrikaans authors, poets, and actresses.
Wilma’s best-known novel is The Journey to the Baobab Tree (1981). The translation by JM Coetzee, published by Faber & Faber, has led to this novel being translated into many languages. For the Italian edition, she received the Grinzane Cavour Prize in 1988. She has also had a successful career as an actress on stage and in film.
Wilma lived in Hillside Cottage on Hoogstraat, and the home still stands today, thankfully with hardly any change. Wilma’s family later built a new house on Sarel Cilliers Street, directly behind Hillside Cottage. Both houses are on Napier’s Heritage List.
She studied at the University of Stellenbosch, earning a BA (Drama) in 1952. She worked as a radio announcer in Cape Town for a year before moving to Pretoria in 1954, where she married Ants Kirsipuu, an Estonian by birth and a language philosopher by trade. For a time, she worked as a translator and later as an actress.
When Wilma and Ants left Napier for Cape Town in 1993, they presented some of her books and medals to the Napier High School, which is now the Napier Retirement Village.
Another writer, Julian de Wette and his wife Charlotte, who were part-time residents of Napier for many years, were present when the collection was handed over to the school.
Julian wrote a poem in honour of Wilma, which local historian Ora Laubscher read aloud when Napier celebrated Wilma’s 92nd birthday by naming a street after her. Prof Ronel de Goede Foster, the editor of the commemorative book about Wilma, Met my Wysvingertop (With the tip of my forefinger), delivered the introductory keynote address at the street-naming ceremony.
Eksteen Odendal of the Retirement Village tells us that when the new High School was built, the collection moved there. However, when it was converted into the School of Skills, he retrieved it. The collection once again has pride of place in the dining room at the Napier Retirement Village.
Read Wilma’s biography