Bessie Head

"When Elizabeth learns the devastating truth about her mother, locked away for defying Apartheid, she flees South Africa and begins a new life in Botswana, at Motabeng, the village of the rain-wind. But Elizabeth is tormented by two men, Dan and Sello, who represent for her a private vision of hell into which she sinks deeper and deeper. This novel interweaves one woman's terrifying experience of insanity with the madness and cruelty of life in a divided society. A Question of Power is the unforgettable study of an individual - and a race - whose identity has been annihilated, and their resulting struggle to endure"--Publisher's description.

A Question of Power

"Margaret Cadmore, an orphaned Masarwa girl, goes to teach in the remote village of Dilepe in Botswana, where her own people are kept as slaves. Her presence polarizes a community which does not see Masarwa people as human, and condemns her to the lonely life of an outcast"--Publisher's description.

Maru

Two exiles--one white, one black--in a poor village in Botswana struggle with tradition, climate, and the local chief as they try to modernize the villagers' farming methods.

When Rain Clouds Gather

Botswana village tales about subjects such as the breakdown of family life and the position of women in this society.

And Other Botswana Village Tales

The Collector of Treasures

Una questione di potere

The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses

This is an anthology of stories, personal observations and historic legends. It reflects the author's fascination with Africa's people and their history as well as her identification with individuals and their conflicting emotions.

Tales of Tenderness and Power

Read worldwide for her wisdom, authenticity, and skillful prose, South African–born Bessie Head (1937–1986) offers a moving and magical tale of an orphaned girl, Margaret Cadmore, who goes to teach in a remote village in Botswana where her own people are kept as slaves. Her presence polarizes a community that does not see her people as human, and condemns her to the lonely life of an outcast. In the love story and intrigue that follows, Head brilliantly combines a portrait of loneliness with a rich affirmation of the mystery and spirituality of life. The core of this otherworldly, rhapsodic work is a plot about racial injustice and prejudice with a lesson in how traditional intolerance may render whole sections of a society untouchable.

The Lovers

In 'When Rain Clouds Gather' a South African political refugee and an Englishman join forces in Botswana to revolutionize the villager's traditional farming methods, but their task is fraught with hazards. 'Maru' is the moving tale of an orphaned Masarwa girl who goes to teach in a remote village in Botswana.

In this fast-paced, semi-autobiographical novel, Head exposes the complicated life of Elizabeth, whose reality is intermingled with nightmarish dreams and hallucinations. Like the author, Elizabeth was conceived out-of-wedlock; her mother was white and her father black—a union outlawed in apartheid South Africa. Elizabeth eventually leaves with her young son to live in Botswana, a country less oppressed by colonial domination, where she finds stability for herself and her son by working on an experimental farm. As readers grow to know Elizabeth, they experience the inner chaos that threatens her stability, and her constant struggle to emerge from the torment of her dreams. There she is plagued by two men, Sello and Dan, who represent complex notions of politics, sex, religion, individuality, and the blurred line between good and evil. Elizabeth’s troubling but amazing roller-coaster ride ends in an unfettered discovery.

In the village of Motabeng, Botswana - the place of sand - Elizabeth and her son have made their new home, far away from their old life in South Africa. But the past cannot be conveniently left behind at the border. Even though she may be free to reinvent herself in this new country, Elizabeth's mixed racial heritage and urban ways mark her as an outsider. A mind-bending novel that takes the reader in and out of sanity, this semi-autobiographical work tracks Elizabeth's struggle to emerge from the oppressive social situation in which she finds herself and from the nightmares and hallucinations that torment her.

A collection of short stories based on life in a Botswanan village, including the story of a woman who murders the husband who deserted her years before.

Bessie Head

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