Mattheus Uys Krige (4 February 1910 – 10 August 1987) was a South African writer of novels, short stories, poems and plays in Afrikaans and English. In Afrikaans literature, Krige is counted among the Dertigers ("Writers of the Thirties"). Uys Krige was, according to his friend Jack Cope, very much an exception among Afrikaner poets and writers of his generation due to his hostility to extreme Afrikaner nationalism, White Supremacism, and his literary translations of Latin American poetry by non-White authors into Afrikaans; which have had an enormous influence upon South African literature and culture. Later in his life, Krige served as a mentor and father figure to the Afrikaans literary movement known as die Sestigers; whom he convinced into speaking truth to power about the 1948–1994 rule of the National Party and its policies of both Apartheid and censorship in South Africa.

Uys Krige was born in Bontebokskloof (near Swellendam) in the Cape Province.

Even though the Krige family believed in Afrikaner nationalism, "the home atmosphere was broadminded and creative, his mother was a talented writer and his younger brother a leading painter."

Uys Krige was educated at the University of Stellenbosch. Like many other Afrikaner young men of his generation, Krige was invited to join the secret society known as the Broederbond, "But on discovering its rule of secrecy and the somewhat medieval rites, Krige beat a hasty retreat."

At the age of 21, Krige left for Europe, where he lived, "on a kind of cheerful vagabondage." Krige acquired fluency in French and Spanish. Whilst in France he played rugby for a team in Toulon, was a swimming coach on the Côte d'Azur, wrote poems and penned freelance articles for the Afrikaans press.

From 1931 to 1933, Krige lived at Martigues, in Provence as a tutor to the daughters of Anglo-African poet Roy Campbell and his English aristocrat-turned-bohemian wife, Mary Garman Campbell. The Campbells' oldest daughter, Anna Campbell, later recalled that Uys Krige replaced a French governess named Anne-Marie, who, "never taught us anything, but drove every night to the casino at Foss to dance". Anna later recalled, however, that she and her sister Tess, "enjoyed doing our lessons", with Uys Krige and that, thanks to him, "we made rapid progress. He stayed with us almost two years."

By the end of 1932, the Pound Sterling had devalued and it had become clear that Krige and the Campbells could no longer afford to live in France. During a discussion with Krige in the spring of 1933, Mary Campbell, "who had read the memoirs of Saint Theresa of Avila when she was six and had a preconceived idea of everything Spanish", recommended moving to Spain.

According to Anna Campbell Lyle, in 1933, the Barcelona pension where the Campbell family stayed was flooded with German Jews and other anti-Nazi political refugees, who held a traditional German Christmas celebration. At the same party, Uys Krige attended with a Catalan girlfriend and Anna Campbell Lyle danced a paso-doble on the table.