Born in Pietermaritzberg, South Africa in 1937, Bessie Head first came to prominence as a columnist on Johannesburg's The Golden City Post. To escape banning under the apartheid system, she was obliged to leave her country of birth on an exit permit, living from 1964 as a refugee in British Bechuanaland, soon to achieve independence as Botswana. As the bulk of the short stories were being written there, she became noted as the pioneer voice of a uniquely African woman, dealing with hitherto undescribed private affairs in village communities. She died in 1986, aged just forty-nine.