Sestigers

The Sestigers (Sixtiers), also known as the Beweging van Sestig (the movement of sixty), were a group of influential resistant Afrikaans-language writers in the 1960s started by André Brink and Breyten Breytenbach, which also included Reza de Wet, Etienne Leroux, Jan Rabie, Ingrid Jonker, Adam Small, Bartho Smit, Chris Barnard, Hennie Aucamp, Dolf van Niekerk, Abraham H. de Vries and Elsa Joubert. These writers studied abroad (mainly in Paris) and under the widespread influence of Existentialism attempted to face the innocent writing of the dominant literature. Thus they aimed at a revolutionary literature (prose mainly) by breaking with the past, and introducing the European innovations, to tackle the political, social and sexual problems of the society and eventually led to a phenomenal growth in the Afrikaans art in later decades. Judy H. Gardner calls the Sestigers' literature "literature in exile in its own country". The Sestigers wished to elevate Afrikaans and confront the Apartheid state.