PRINGLE, THOMAS

born Jan. 5, 1789, Blaiklaw, Roxburghshire, Scot. died Dec. 5, 1834, London, Eng. Scottish-South African poet, often called the father of South African poetry. Pringle was educated at the University of Edinburgh and befriended by Sir Walter Scott. He immigrated to South Africa in 1820. He published a newspaper and a magazine in Cape Town, but his reform views caused their suppression. He returned to London in 1826 and spent the rest of his life in the antislavery movement. His two verse collections, Ephemerides (1828) and African Sketches (1834), contained many notable poems dealing with the people, wildlife, and landscape of Africa. Narrative of a Residence in South Africa (1835) was his autobiography.