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Bessie Head (1937-1986). South Africa.Bessie Head was born in a mental hospital in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa to Bessie Emery, a wealthy white woman who had been in a relationship with a black stable-hand who worked for her family. Bessie was adoptedby a "Colored" (mixed-race) family . She was educated at a mission school, and received a teaching certificate in 1955. She taught for a few years, but did not like the job, and subsequently chose to work as a journalist. She wrote for Drum magazine. In 1960, she married a journalist named Harold Head. The marriage ended in divorce in 1964, and she took her son, Howard to Serowe, Botswana. In Botswana, she began writing novels. Her first novel, When Rain Clouds Gather (1968), is the story of a political refugee from South Africa who escapes to Botswana after serving time in prison. He moves to a rural town named Golema Mmidi ("to grow crops") and finds it populated with people who, like himself, are seeking a better life. They have set up anagricultural project and a cattle cooperative, which are not popular with the local village chief, who has a vested interest in maintaining their traditions. Eventually, his political tactics fail, and he commits suicide. This event liberates the main characters and the village. Critics have complained of the lack of character development in the novel. Head's best known novel, A Question of Power (1973), is her third. It also revolves around an expatriate in Botswana, but is considerably more autobiographical. The main character, named Elizabeth, has settled in a rural town. Like Head, she is a Colored South African. She is overcome by loneliness in her new home, and she eventually loses her mind. The first part of the novel deals with her relationship with a man in the village named Sello. The relationship takes place entirely in Elizabeth's mind. This bizarre relationship, in which Sello takes on different incarnations, while not especially benevolent, stands in contrast to her experiences with Dan. Elizabeth's encounters with Dan also take place in her imagination. Dan forces her to watch sexual acts he performs on a series of fantastic women, and psychologically tortures her with hellish visions. After a period in a mental hospital, Elizabeth returns to her co-op farm and her son, and finds peace. Head's work is filled with references to the Bible and classical works, as well as twentieth-century writers such as D. H. Lawrence. She greatly resisted attempts to categorize her writing as "African" or "feminist". Her work is highly individualized, rather than political, and defies this type of classification as a result. (KJ) When Rain Clouds Gather. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1968. |
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