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Maru (novel)
''Maru'' is a 1971 novel by Bessie Head, exploring racism and ethnic conflict, specifically that of the Tswanas, Tswana and San people, San peoples. It centres on an orphaned Masarwa girl who comes to the community of Dilepe to teach. Britannica. References 20th-century South African novels 1971 novels {{SouthAfrica-novel-stub ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bessie Head
Bessie Amelia Emery Head (6 July 1937 – 17 April 1986) was a South African writer who, though born in South Africa, is usually considered Botswana's most influential writer. She wrote novels, short fiction and autobiographical works that are infused with spiritual questioning and reflection. Biography Bessie Amelia Emery was born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, the child of a "white" woman and a "non-white" man at a time when interracial relationships were illegal in South Africa. Bessie's mother, Bessie Amelia Emery, from the wealthy South African Birch family, had been hospitalised for several years in mental hospitals following the death of her first child, a boy. She was in the huge mental hospital in Pietermaritzburg when she gave birth to Bessie. Although she was not allowed to keep the child, she did give the daughter her own name. Infant Bessie was first placed with white foster parents on the assumption that she was white. A few weeks later these parents realise ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
When Rain Clouds Gather
''When Rain Clouds Gather'' is a 1968 novel by South African- Motswana author Bessie Head. Head wrote the novel while in exile in Botswana in 1967. Plot Makehaya escapes Apartheid South Africa into Botswana. In the village of Golema Mmidi he meets Gilbert, an Englishman who is trying to modernise farming. They join forces to create a utopia but are opposed by the village chief. Reception David P. Bargueño wrote that the book emphasises the twin aspects of hope and despair, and that it depicts love as "a magical force that can overcome insuperable challenges", an idea not present in Head's 1971 work ''A Question of Power'', written after her nervous breakdown. Helen Oyeyemi wrote of ''When Rain Clouds Gather'' and Head that "Her men are intensely perceptive, imbued with a 'feminine sensitivity' that raises them above the level of 'grovelling sex organs' that Head complained African men were traditionally reduced to within their communities." Writing in ''Open Cultural ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tswanas
The Tswana ( tn, Batswana, singular ''Motswana'') are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group native to Southern Africa. The Tswana language is a principal member of the Sotho-Tswana language group. Ethnic Tswana made up approximately 85% of the population of Botswana in 2011. Batswana are the native people of south and eastern Botswana, and the Gauteng, North West, Northern Cape and Free State provinces of South Africa, where the majority of Batswana are located. History Early history of Batswana The Batswana are descended mainly from Bantu-speaking tribes along with the Khoi-San. Tswana tribe migrated southward to Africa around 600 CE, living in tribal enclaves as farmers and herders. Several Iron Age cultures flourished around the 900 CE, including the Toutswemogala Hill Iron Age settlement. The Toutswe were in the eastern region of what is now Botswana, relying on Tswana cattle breed held in kraals as their source of wealth. The arrival of the ancestors of the Tswana-speake ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San People
The San peoples (also Saan), or Bushmen, are members of various Khoe, Tuu, or Kxʼa-speaking indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures that are the first cultures of Southern Africa, and whose territories span Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and South Africa. In 2017, Botswana was home to approximately 63,500 San people (roughly 2.8% of the population) making it the country with the highest number of San people. Definition The term "San" has a long vowel and is spelled Sān (in Khoekhoegowab orthography). It is a Khoekhoe exonym with the meaning of "foragers" and was often used in a derogatory manner to describe nomadic, foraging people. Based on observation of lifestyle, this term has been applied to speakers of three distinct language families living between the Okavango River in Botswana and Etosha National Park in northwestern Namibia, extending up into southern Angola; central peoples of most of Namibia and Botswana, extending into Zambia and Zimbabwe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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