BESSIE HEAD

PRESENTED BY :

SITI HAJAR BT ZAID

SITI NABIHAH BT MUSTAFFA
NUR AZIMAH BT MD SALLEH
NAJWA ADIBAH BT BUKARI
BIOGRAPHY
A Brief Sketch of the Life of Bessie Head
 Bessie Amelia Head never knew her real parents: an unstable white

woman and an unknown black man. She was born and raised in
apartheid South Africa. There she suffered from poverty, racial
segregation, and gender discrimination. She also had to worry about
her own "delicate nervous balance".
 As a young woman she left South Africa to come to Botswana. She

lived the rest of her life in this country, mostly in Serowe. Bit by bit
she overcame her many formidable obstacles. One of her passions
was letter-writing; she corresponded with hundreds of people from
many countries during her life. At the end she was a famous writer
known all around the world.
BIOGRAPHY
1937 July 6 Bessie Amelia Emery born in
Pietermaritzburg city hospital,
Natal, in the then Union of South
Africa. Her mother a patient in
the Fort Napier Mental Hospital
nearby.
1937 August is put into foster care with the
"coloured" Heathcote family
1955 finishes 2-year teacher training
course
1956-1958 teaches primary school in Durban
1958 July turns 21; leaves Durban for Cape
Town
1958 August is hired as only woman reporter
for Golden City Post, lives in
District Six
1959 April Robert Sobukwe founds Pan
Africanist Congress (PAC)
1959 April Bessie moves to Johannesburg,
continues to write
for Drum publications, meets many
leading figures
1960 March joins PAC, meets Sobukwe;
Sharpeville Massacre occurs
1960 April arrested for PAC ties, turns state
witness, tries to commit suicide
1960 May spends time in hospital, returns
to Cape Town
mid-1960 - mid 1961 often unemployed, publishes own
newspaper, The Citizen; meets
Harold Head
1961 September 1 marries Harold Head; the couple live
in District Six
1962 Bessie and Harold write for The New
African; Bessie finishes The Cardinals
1962 May 15 son Howard Head is born
1962 September Heads move to Port Elizabeth
1963 Oct-Nov Heads again live in Cape Town
1963 November Bessie leaves Harold, takes
Howard to Pretoria
1964 February is denied a passport to travel
outside S. Africa
1964 March accepts teaching job in Serowe,
Bechuanaland Protectorate; leaves
South Africa forever, with her son,
on an exit visa
1964-1965 teaches at Tshekedi Memorial
School in Serowe; meets
Lenyeletse Seretse and Patrick van
Rensburg, who help her
1966 Jan-Sept spends 5 months at Bamangwato
Development Farm at Radisele; 2
months as typist in Palapye;
moves to Francistown refugee
camp; sells first important story to
the New Statesman
1966 September 30 Botswana becomes independent
1967-1968 Bessie lives in Francistown,
writes When Rain Clouds Gather
1969 January receives advance copies of Rain
Clouds; moves back to Serowe
1969 March-May first schizophrenic
episode; Rain Clouds is
published to good reviews in
London and New York
1969 Oct-Nov builds and moves into new house;
joins Boiteko self-help group as
gardening leader
1970 writes Maru
1971 February publishes Maru to favourable
reviews
1971 March-June mental breakdown, hospitalisation
at Lobatse Mental Hospital
1971 August begins writing A Question of Power
1972 April finishes A Question of Power; it
first fails to find a publisher; she
corresponds with Robert Sobukwe
1973 September meets poet Nikki Giovanni in
Gaborone
1973 October A Question of Power is
published to mixed
reviews; Village of the Rain
Wind is begun
1974 Feb-May accepts and then rejects offer of
asylum and citizenship in Norway
1974 May Village of the Rain Wind completed
1974 December The Collector of
Treasures completed
1975 gives talks and seminars in
Botswana, quarrels with publishers
1976 June Soweto uprising begins
1976 December first major interview for overseas
media, London Magazine and the
BBC
1977 Aug-Dec attends International Writing
Program at the University of Iowa,
USA; makes many literary
contacts; is a celebrity abroad
1977 October application for Botswana
citizenship is rejected
1978 February Robert Sobukwe dies; Bessie
writes emotional short story in
tribute
1979 January Village of the Rain Wind at last
accepted for publication
1979 February 12 is granted Botswana citizenship
without requesting it
1979 June participates in Berlin International
Literature Days, Germany
1980 lives in Gaborone, works on A
Bewitched Crossroad
1981 June
Serowe: Village of the Rain
Wind is published to good
reviews

1982 May Howard leaves for further

education in Canada
1982 June attends literary conference at the
University of Calabar, Nigeria
1982 October participates in Writers' Workshop
in Gaborone
1983 works on A Bewitched Crossroad
1984 January finishes A Bewitched Crossroad
1984 October Howard Head returns to
Serowe from Canada
1984 October 31 A Bewitched Crossroad is
published, in Johannesburg only,
and thus receives few reviews
1985 April "Why Do I Write?" is prepared
for Libération and Mmegi
1985 August Harold Head begins divorce
proceedings, 22 years after her
separation
1986 January Bessie has quarrel with Howard,
insists that he leave her house
1986 February Harold's application for divorce is
granted
1986 March drinks heavily now, brandy and gin
as well as beer
1986 April 17 dies in Sekgoma Memorial
Hospital, Serowe, Botswana
REFERENCES

http://www.bessiehead.org/biography/biography.
htm