Prof Jaco Barnard-Naude
A University of Cape Town law professor has added a remarkable literary achievement to his academic career after winning one of the most respected awards in Afrikaans poetry.
Professor Jaco Barnard-Naude, Director of Research at the University of Cape Town’s Faculty of Law, has been awarded the Ingrid Jonker Literary Prize for his debut poetry collection om my kastele in Spanje te sloop (To Demolish My Castles in Spain).
The collection, published in 2024 by Human & Rousseau, marks a rare moment where academic scholarship and literary artistry intersect at the highest level.
Winning the Ingrid Jonker Prize – widely regarded as the most prestigious award for debut Afrikaans poetry – is an accomplishment rarely seen from scholars working primarily in law.
Poetry born from personal experience
Barnard-Naude began writing what would later become the award-winning collection as far back as 2007, following the sudden death of his best friend. The manuscript was completed in early 2023 after years of reflection and refinement.
The poems draw deeply from personal experience.
“The inspiration came from the need to give voice to my personal traumas up to that point,” Barnard-Naude explained.
Much of the work reflects on his upbringing as a queer person growing up in the town of Brits during the final years of apartheid, as well as the emotional challenges of life in what he describes as an abusive patriarchal Afrikaner family.
Through poetry, he found a way to process these experiences and transform them into literary expression.
A full-circle moment
For Barnard-Naude, the award carries profound personal meaning.
He recalls discovering the work of celebrated Afrikaans poet Ingrid Jonker in the mid-1990s, long before he seriously began writing poetry himself.
“I was obsessed with Ingrid Jonker for many years, as many young poets are,” he said.
Winning a prize named in her honour now feels like a moment where life has come full circle.
The recognition has also provided encouragement in a literary field that often struggles with limited readership and high publishing barriers.
“For a debut poet who has always been unsure about whether I am ‘good enough’, receiving this prize brings creative courage, perseverance and a great deal of joy,” he said.
A career in law and critical thought
While his poetry has gained national recognition, Barnard-Naude is widely respected for his work in legal scholarship.
He joined the University of Cape Town in 2004 as a lecturer in the Department of Commercial Law before moving to the Department of Private Law two years later. By 2011, he had been promoted to the rank of professor.
Today he teaches jurisprudence to undergraduate law students and leads advanced courses such as spatial justice in the final year of the LLB programme. He also supervises numerous postgraduate students at master’s and doctoral levels.
His research explores themes that often bridge law, philosophy and cultural studies.
Among his current projects is an exploration of justice in modernist visual poetry, including contemporary South African visual poetry. Another research focus examines post-apartheid psychoanalytic critical jurisprudence, reflecting his interest in the deeper philosophical foundations of law.
An internationally recognised scholar
Barnard-Naude holds a B1 rating from South Africa’s National Research Foundation, a distinction awarded to internationally recognised researchers.
His academic work has also taken him abroad. Between 2017 and 2020, he served as the British Academy’s Newton Advanced Fellow at the University of Westminster’s Law & Theory Lab in the United Kingdom.
He has also been an Honorary Research Fellow at the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London and has contributed as a tutor to the London Critical Theory Summer School.
As of January 2026, he holds the WP Schreiner Chair in Private Law and Jurisprudence, a historic academic position established in 1924 within UCT’s Department of Private Law.
What comes next
Despite the major recognition, Barnard-Naude says his literary journey is far from over.
He is currently working – slowly and cautiously, as he puts it – on a second poetry collection.
At the same time, he is collaborating with acclaimed South African poet and translator Karen Press on an English translation of his award-winning collection, which will introduce the work to a broader international audience.
For readers and scholars alike, Barnard-Naude’s achievement stands as a reminder that literature can emerge from the most unexpected places – even from the halls of legal academia.
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