Ronelda Kamfer

Ronelda Kamfer (born 16 June 1981 in Blackheath, Cape Town, South Africa) is a Kaaps-language South African poet and novelist.

Life Kamfer grew up with her grandparents since the age of three. They were farm workers in Grabouw, Western Cape, South Africa, in a region known for its orchards and vineyards located 65 kilometers south-east of Cape Town. She then returned to her parents, who, when she was nine years old, settled in Eerste River, Western Cape, a township of Cape Town that had many social problems, including a prevailing gang culture. This experience profoundly marked her life and her writing. She went to school at Eersterivier Sekondêr and obtained an Honours degree in Afrikaans and Dutch languages at the University of the Western Cape in 2011 (with Antjie Krog as one of her professors) and a Master's degree in Creative writing at Rhodes University in 2019.

Kamfer published her first poems in anthologies and magazines in South Africa and the Netherlands. Among the authors who influenced her, she mentions Derek Walcott, Charles Bukowski and Antjie Krog.

Kamfer is married to poet, illustrator and comic-strip creator Nathan Trantraal; they have one child and live in Makhanda. In 2016, she was awarded the Jan Rabie en Marjorie Wallace writer's grant prize.

Works Kamfer's work include:

Poetry Collections of poetry (Translated title: "Now that the dogs are sleeping".)

French translations Missives n° 253, Littératures d'Afrique du Sud, June 2009, Paris.

Confluences Poétiques n° 4, April 2011, Paris.

Special issue of the journal Bacchanales. Po&sie n° 143, June 2013, Paris: Éditions Belin. Zone sensible n°1, June 2014, "Poésie et événement", Biennale internationale des poètes en Val-de-Marne, Ivry. In special issue Afriques 2. Chinatown, édition bilingue afrikaans-français, translated by Pierre-Marie Finkelstein, Éditions des Lisières, Curnier, 2023 (https://www.editionsdeslisieres.com) Le cantonnement, translated by Georges Lory (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Lory) , Zoé, 2025,

English translations Extract from two collections of poetry with an introduction by André Brink.

Prose

A novel.

Reception Burger's critique places Kamfer's use of the ocean as a literary device within the context of other South African poets, such as Koleka Putuma.