Elsa Joubert

Who is Elsa Joubert?

Elsa Joubert, born as Elsabé Antoinette Murray on 19 October 1922 in Paarl, is an Afrikaans-speaking South African writer. Elsa Joubert rose to prominence with her novel Die swerfjare van Poppie Nongena, which was translated into 13 languages and also staged as a drama.

Elsa Joubert grew up in Paarl and matriculated from the all-girls school La Rochelle in Paarl in 1939. She then studied at the University of Stellenbosch from which she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1942 and an SED in 1943. She continued her studies at the University of Cape Town which she left with a Master's degree in Dutch-Afrikaans literature at in 1945.

After graduating, Elsa Joubert taught at the Hoër Meisieskool, an all-girls high school in Cradock, then worked as the editor of the women’s pages of Huisgenoot, a well-known Afrikaans family magazine, from 1946 to 1948. She then started writing full-time and travelled extensively in Africa, from the springs of the Nile in Uganda, through the Sudan, to Cairo, as well as to Mozambique, Mauritius, Réunion, Madagascar, and Angola. She also visited Indonesia.

In 1950 Elsa Joubert married Klaas Steytler, a journalist and later publisher and author, who died in 1998. She has three children, two daughters and one son, and lives in Oranjezicht, Cape Town.