Novelist and historian Bessie Head is born

Novelist, short story writer and social historian Bessie Amelia Head was born in Pietermaritzburg. Being the daughter of a White mother (who was disowned by her parents when she became pregnant and sent to a mental asylum where Head was born) and a Black father, she had a very difficult childhood. Allegedly her foster parents rejected her at some stage because she was too Black and she was then raised in an Anglican mission orphanage. She was granted Botswana citizenship in 1979. Head started writing extensively in her adoptive country. Some of her works such as When Rain Clouds Gather and Maru have been prescribed for learners in various schools in South Africa. Her untimely death in 1986 cut her career short. Some of her material was published posthumously and received international recognition. Source: Verwey, E.J. (ed)(1995). New Dictionary of South African Biography, v.1, Pretoria: HSRC.