Bessie Head
Bessie Head biography, life and career of Bessie Head, famous quotes of Bessie Head, her writings, legacy, and lessons from her life.
Introduction
Bessie Amelia Emery Head (6 July 1937 – 17 April 1986) was a South African-born writer who is often regarded as Botswana’s most influential literary voice. Her novels, short stories, and autobiographical writings explore themes of identity, exile, mental health, spiritual yearning, race, and belonging. Though her life was fraught with personal hardship and political displacement, her work continues to inspire readers in Africa and worldwide.
Early Life and Background
Bessie Head was born in Pietermaritzburg, Natal (South Africa), under legally fraught circumstances: her mother was a white woman institutionalized in a psychiatric hospital, and her father was a Black man.
Shortly after her birth, she was placed briefly with a white foster family, but once her racial identity became apparent, she was returned to authorities and ultimately placed with a “coloured” couple, the Heathcotes.
At age 13 (around 1950), Bessie was sent to St. Monica’s Home, an Anglican mission school for “coloured” girls in Durban.
She trained as a teacher and began working as a primary school teacher in Durban (mid-1950s).
Exile, Personal Struggles & Literary Career
Departure from South Africa and Exile in Botswana
In 1964, Bessie Head left South Africa with her young son under a one-way permit, entering the then Bechuanaland Protectorate (later Botswana).
Her outsider status in Botswana — neither fully indigenous nor fully accepted — gave her a unique vantage to examine power, belonging, and the complexities of social change.
Literary Works & Themes
Some of Bessie Head’s major works include:
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When Rain Clouds Gather (1968) — her first full novel, set in Botswana, reflecting her hopes for social development and the meeting of tradition and modernity.
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Maru (1971) — dealing with issues of caste, belonging, and internal oppression.
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A Question of Power (1973) — a semi-autobiographical novel in which the protagonist experiences psychological fragmentation, power relations, and the spiritual quest for wholeness.
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The Collector of Treasures and Other Botswana Village Tales (1977) — short stories often centered on women’s lives, social injustice, and moral complexity.
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Serowe: Village of the Rain Wind (1981) — a literary-historical work about the village she lived in, merging fact and narrative.
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A Bewitched Crossroad (1984) — historical fiction set in 19th-century Botswana.
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The Cardinals — a novella written earlier, but published posthumously (1993).
Her writings are rich with:
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Spiritual and psychological exploration — wrestling with interior conflict, identity, mental health, and transcendence.
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Social critique — interrogating race, tribalism, caste, and power hierarchies in African societies.
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Exile and belonging — the paradox of being both outsider and insider.
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Female experience — often giving voice to the marginalized women of village life, their struggles, and resilience.
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Nature and rural life — many of her narratives take place in village contexts, deepening engagement with land, community, and tradition.
Personal Health Struggles and Death
Bessie Head’s life was marked by mental health challenges. In 1969, she experienced a major psychological breakdown, leading to hospitalization in Lobatse Mental Hospital. A Question of Power.
Her health remained fragile. On 17 April 1986, she died in Serowe, Botswana, reportedly from complications of hepatitis. She was 48.
Posthumously, she was honored in South Africa with the Order of Ikhamanga in Gold (2003) for her “exceptional contribution to literature and the struggle for social change, freedom and peace.” Bessie Head Heritage Trust was founded; her literary legacy continues through awards, memorials, and academic study.
Legacy and Influence
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Bessie Head is often named among the greatest African writers of the 20th century, particularly for her psychological depth and moral vision.
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Her works are serious presences in African literatures—often included in university curricula, studied for their themes of existential struggle, social justice, and identity.
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She bridged the genres of fiction, autobiography, social commentary, and spiritual writing in ways rare among her contemporaries.
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Her life story—of marginality, displacement, mental struggle, and creative persistence—has itself become a source of inspiration and scholarly fascination.
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In Botswana, her memory is tied to Serowe and the Khama III Memorial Museum, where her manuscripts, letters, and artifacts are preserved (though preservation is under threat).
Selected Quotes of Bessie Head
Here are some of Bessie Head’s most powerful and resonant quotations:
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“I am building a stairway to the stars. I have the authority to take the whole of mankind up there with me. That is why I write.”
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“I have often noticed that the need for cash and the production of a masterpiece just don’t coincide with me. Money will hit me at a big off-period and genius will hit me in starvation…”
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“Love is mutually feeding each other, not one living on another like a ghoul.”
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“A discipline I have observed is an attitude of love and reverence to people.”
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“I once sat down on a bench at Cape Town railway station where the notice ‘Whites Only’ was obscured. A few moments later a white man approached and shouted: ‘Get off!’ … human beings, when they are human, dare not conduct themselves in such ways.”
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“If the things of the soul are really a question of power, then anyone in possession of power of the spirit could be Lucifer.”
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“People who hoard little bits of things cannot throw out and expand … keep in circulation a flowing current of wealth.”
These quotes reflect her preoccupations: the tension between poverty and creativity, love and dignity, spiritual power and human frailty.
Lessons from Bessie Head
From her life and works, one can draw several enriching lessons:
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Creativity amid hardship
Even under marginalization, exile, and illness, Bessie Head wrote with urgency, clarity, and moral conviction. -
Belonging is complex
Her life and characters show that belonging isn’t simply a matter of birthplace or citizenship—but of engagement, identity, and moral vision. -
Power is interior as well as social
In A Question of Power, she shows that real power involves mastery of one’s internal life, confronting fear, fragmentation, and spiritual crisis. -
Speak for the marginalized
Her voice always tended toward those suppressed by racial, gender, or social hierarchies. -
Writing as pilgrimage
She saw writing not only as self-expression but as a moral and spiritual journey.
Conclusion
Bessie Head’s story is as compelling as her writing. Her life embodied exile, identity tensions, mental health struggles, and fierce spiritual yearning. Yet through it all, she produced literature of singular depth and moral clarity. She remains a guiding light for readers who believe that storytelling can transform consciousness, heal wounds, and challenge social injustice.