Walter Kefuoe Fikelephi Chakela was a revered playwright and poet born on 13 April 1953 in Vryburg, a small, conservative Afrikaner town in Transvaal (now North West Province). His father, Augustine Tjato ‘Chateau’ Chakela, was a travelling agricultural inspection officer and a captivating storyteller who found an eager listener in his son.

Dorothy Alexander was born on 7 August 1938 in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape, the third of six children[1]. One of her siblings was Neville Alexander. Since her father was disabled, the Cape Education Department allowed her mother to become a permanent teacher. (At the time, married women were not usually permitted to hold permanent positions in government employment.) Alexander was brought up in a strict Catholic household, and completed her Junior Certificate at the Holy Rosary Convent, Cradock in 1953.