Monica's, as well as several members of the 'Indian' community, and her interest in non-Christian religions flourished, especially Hinduism. During this time she developed close friendships with several of the white staff of St. Finally, at the beginning of 1956, the court declared her an adult she was awarded a provisional teaching certificate and she accepted a job as a teacher in a coloured primary school in Durban. She went on to do a two-year Teacher Training Certificate at a nearby college, while living at St. Two years later, at the end of 1953, Bessie passed her Junior Certificate examination. The young teenager was devastated and withdrew into herself.

The authorities abruptly told her that she was the daughter of a white woman, not Nelly Heathcote, and that she would not be allowed to return to her former home for the Christmas holidays. At the end of her second year, she endured the first great trauma of her life. Later, she began to appreciate the wealth of books and knowledge that the school offered. At first, Bessie tried to run away and go home. Monica's Home for Coloured Girls, an Anglican boarding-school in Durban. When Bessie was 12, after she had completed four years of primary school, the authorities moved her to St. She enjoyed a near-normal childhood of her time and place, with the exception that her foster mother resented her love of books. She never quite realised that she was not a Heathcote. Here, she grew up with a strict foster mother, Nelly Heathcote, and attended the local Catholic Church and primary school. She was then placed with a mixed-race or 'coloured' family, the Heathcotes, in a poor non-white area of Pietermaritzburg. A few weeks later these parents realised that she was brown and returned her to the authorities. Infant Bessie was first placed with white foster parents on the assumption that she was white.

Although she was not allowed to keep the child, she did give the daughter her own name. She was in the huge mental hospital in Pietermaritzburg when she gave birth to Bessie. Bessie's mother, Bessie Amelia Emery, from the wealthy South African Birch family, had been hospitalised for several years in mental hospitals following the death of her first child, a boy. Biography īessie Amelia Emery was born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, the child of a 'white' woman and a 'non-white' man at a time when interracial relationships were illegal in South Africa. She wrote novels, short fiction and autobiographical works that are infused with spiritual questioning and reflection. When Rain Clouds Gather (1968) Maru (1971) A Question of Power (1973)īessie Amelia Emery Head (6 July 1937 – 17 April 1986) was a South African writer who, though born in South Africa, is usually considered Botswana's most influential writer. Short fiction, novels, short personal essays.

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