The Cardinals: With Meditations and Short Stories

Bessie Head was born on July 6, 1937 in a mental hospital in South Africa. She was the child of a white mother and a black father. Head's mother had been judged insane for fraternizing with a colored man and committed to the mental hospital while pregnant. After her birth, Head was adopted by a coloured woman and raised in the mixed-raced community of Natal, South Africa. Head's birth mother died in the asylum in 1943. After receiving her teaching certificate, Head taught for a short while before taking a job as a newspaper reporter. In 1964, Head migrated to Botswana and began her career as a novelist. When Rain Clouds Gather, Head's first novel, was published in 1968. In the book, Head focuses on the racial hatred and political corruption of her time. Head's other novels include Maru, A Question of Power, and Serowe: Village of the Rain Wind, a story set in the village where Head lived. Head also wrote the collections Tales of Tenderness and Power, A Collection of Treasures, and A Woman Alone: Autobiographical Writings. Bessie Head died on April 17, 1986, at the age of 49.