12 Jun 2013

The Bessie Head Heritage Trust has asked the Serowe Administrative Authority councillors to help them lobby for the multi-million Serowe library to be named after Ms Bessie Head.

One of the trust members, Ms Gasenone Kediseng said, on June 10, that after the good job that Bessie did for this country in literature; it would be fitting to recognise her by naming the library after her.

She said Bessie was an active member of the first library ever to be established in Serowe, adding that she was recognised internationally through awards while there was nothing done by the locals to show appreciation.

When commenting on the issue, Councillor Lesego Raditanka said it would be appropriate to name the library after her considering the good job she had done for the country. Councilor Lesedi Phuthego said it would be a good move to name the library after her adding that it was Bessie who made Serowe famous with her writings and teaching local people how to read and write.

Ms Bessie Head was born on 6 July 1937 in Pietermaritzburg in a mental hospital as Bessie Amelia Emery, the daughter of a white woman named Bessie Amelia Birch and an unnamed father who was black. She was then adopted and brought up by a foster mother called Nellie Heathcote.

In March 1964, Bessie left South Africa on an exit permit to Botswana where she held various jobs and in 1968 her first novel entitled When Rain Clouds Gather was published. The novel reflected her involvement in agriculture at the Bamangwato Development Farm and her life in the refugee camp in Francistown.

In 1971, her novel Maru, was published and it dealt with racial prejudices and in 1973 her other novel A Question of Power was published and it reflected the psychological effects of her mental breakdown and other issues such as race. She went on to publish a novel titled Collector of treasures and Village of the rain wind. ENDS