C.S. Badenhorst

C.S. Badenhorst (1926–2004) was an Afrikaans author and playwright.

Biography

Born Christina Susanna van Zyl on 24 Mei 1926 on the farm Bokkraal in die Marico-district, where she attended a two-person school for the first eight years, before matriculated at the Zeerust Hoërskool in 1943. She then attended the Potchefstroomse Onderwyskollege to study physical education.

She began teaching in 1947, and would continue doing so till her retirement in 1975 (with a break of a few years while she raised her two daughters, and wrote full time).

She married Frik Badenhorst in 1949, and passed away in Potchefstroom in 2004.

Her writing

She wrote primarily for children and teenagers and had her first story published in Die Jongspan[] when she was barely nine years old. When she was in standards none and ten at high school, she won a number of national essay and drama competitions.

She would go on to write hundreds of stories for the that journal (published under her own name as well as under seven pseudonyms), as well as publishing in the children's magazines Patrys, Trompie en Pronkertjie.

From the 1950s onwards her stories also appeared in book form and she became involved in compiling collections for school use.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

Her plays include:

Two plays for children (Skelm Rokers and Kinkhoes) that were anthologised by Gerhard J. Beukes in in the collection Spele vir die Jongspan in 1959.

Ten short plays by Badenhorst, primarily intended for performance by primary school children, was published in the collection Kindertoneelstukkies by Afrikaanse Pers in 1960. (The plays in included in the latter publication are are: Die Kwaai Juffrou, San se Les, Die Lui Miertjie, Die Onmoontlike Tweeling, Sielkunde, Onselfsugtigheid, Elke Hond Kry Sy Dag, Huiswerk – somme, Die Onbekende Kwaal and Jakob en Esau. )