Andries Oliphant is a literary theorist, arts and culture policy developer, and advisor. He is the head of the department for theory of literature at the University of South Africa and currently chairs the Arts and Culture Trust and the South African Writers Association. He is also a cultural advisor for Freedom Park. Mr. Oliphant played a leading role in the development of arts, culture, and media policies for a democratic South Africa. He was a chairperson of the National Arts Coalition and of the Arts and Culture Task Group. Furthermore, he was a member of the writing team for the White Paper on Arts, Culture, and Heritage; and of the International Panel for the Commonwealth Writers Prize for 2003-2004 and chaired the Commonwealth Writers Prize for the Africa Region. Further memberships include the Heritage Legislative Review Panel of the Department of Arts and Culture and the Council of the English Literary Museum and the International Comparative Literature Association. In 1998 Mr. Oliphant was a special international guest of the Swedish Academy at the Nobel Prize ceremonies held in Stockholm and a participant in the first White House Conference on Culture and Diplomacy hosted by former US President Bill Clinton in Washington in 2000.