Passion or Profession: Writer

Period: 1937–1986

Though Head was born in South Africa, she is famous for the literature she produced in Botswana. The product of a culturally unacceptable cross-racial union, Head was raised in foster care and an orphanage for most of her life. After brief stints as a teacher and journalist, she left an unhappy marriage and fled to Botswana, where she would live for the rest of her life. Despite her refugee status and extreme poverty, she wrote several important pieces of African literature, including her three novels When Rain Clouds Gather (1968), Maru (1971), and A Question of Power (1973).