During the evening of June 28th 2007 Rike (Frederike) Olivier died in South Africa. She worked at IFA only for one year but it was due to her and her husband's arrival and their employment at the Adam Mickiewcz University that we were able to launch the South African programme.
Rike was born in Belgium in 1946. In the very same year her father, Rob Antonissen, published in Dutch a work on the history of literature Schets van den ontwikkelingsgang der Zuid-Afrikaanse letterkunde (‘An outline of the development of Afrikaans literature') that proved to be very important for South African historical studies. And so Rike's engagement with Africa began. Before long, the family went to South Africa, where her father became a professor at Rhodes University (Grahamstown) and after a few years he published Die Afrikaanse Letterkunde van Aanvang tot Hede (‘Afrikaans Literature from beginning till now') (1955). It was no surprise that she followed in her father's footsteps and undertook philological studies (Afrikaans, Dutch, German, English) obtaining her first degree (Baccalaureus Artium) in 1967. After that, she was acquiring further qualifications, all cum laude: BA in Afrikaans and Nederlands (1972), Higher Diploma in Librarianship (1975). In 1981 the work Vitalis en verteller: 'n ondersoek na aspekte van die romankuns van Gerard Walschap - a study of the Flemish post-World War II modernist novel ("le nouveau roman") of which Belgian author, Gerard Walschap, was an exponent - granted her the title of Magister Artium in Afrikaans and Dutch.
Initially, she was acquiring experience as a teacher of English in the United Kingdom (1968-1969), then she returned to South Africa where she worked as the Assistant Head at Rhodes University Library (1975). Subsequently, she was employed at her former university in Grahamstown in the position of bibliographer in the Institute for the Study of English in Africa (1978), and Lecturer and Graduate Assistant in the Department of Afrikaans en Nederlands (1976-1987). After that she worked as a Lecturer in the Department of Afrikaans and Nederlands at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (1987-1991) and as Head Librarian at the University of Venda Library in Thohoyandou (1991-1992), and eventually as a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for African Languages, Arts and Culture at the University of Venda.
Just before her coming to Poland Rike was completing her PhD project at the Rand Afrikaans University with the title Middeleeuse konvensies en die dramatiese diskoers: 'n ondersoek na taalhandeling en gender as strukturele en interpretatiewe strategieë by drie Middelnederlandse tekste vir toneel: "Lanseloet van Denemerken", "Elckerlijc" en "Mariken van Nieumeghen". Rike was also translating Dutch literature into English - Jozef Van Hoeck, Suspended sentence (Voorlopig vonnis), Johannesburg (1977), and Afrikaans literature into English - John Miles, Deafening silence (Kroniek uit die doofpot), Cape Town (1997) and Breyten Breytenbach, A season in paradise ('n Seisoen in die paradys), New York 1997.
In 2005 she was diagnosed with progressing aphasia. In January 2006 she returned to South Africa with her husband.
We shall remember Rike as a very sociable and ever cheerful person with a great sense of humour.
the photo was taken in autumn 2004 - (from left: Fanie Olivier, Rike Olivier, Paweł Zajas, Jerzy Koch, Nancy Saeys)
