Bessie Head is a well known writer, known for her collection of short stories. Her stories tell of her experiences and what she saw while living in Africa. She was born on July 6, 1937. Her mother was white and a patient in a mental hospital. With her mother became to care for Bessie, she gave her up for adoption. The first adoptive family was white but after realizing that Bessie was half African American (her father was black), she was returned to her mother. Soon later Bessie was placed with a black family. Bessie's birth mother died when she was only six years old and at that point, all contact with her real birth family was lost. Bessie Head does not reveal much about her early years, leaving it to speculation that her childhood wasn't an easy one.
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Bessie Head learned at a very young age that she was adopted and she learned of it in a very cruel manner. Away from home at boarding school, where she was sent by her parents, she was told the that she was an adopted child. When she was older, she went to missionary school and later became a teacher. After a few years, she quit teaching and became a journalist. She married and had a son but the marriage ended in a divorce. After the divorce, she decided to move to Botswana, where she began a new life.
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In Botswana, she began writing short stories and eventually novels. In her stories, she describes many of her personal experiences. Her writings describe things she encountered in her - being interracial, growing up in a segregated society and not fully understanding or knowing her true identity. Many of her stories deal with issues of discrimination and racism, poverty, African history, and being a refugee. She also writes of poor and emotionally abused black women. Her stories are filled with many different characters, all brilliantly used to inform her readers of the struggles and hardships of life in post-colonial Africa.
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In one of her stories, "The Collector of Treasures", Head describes the main character, Dikeledi Mokopi, as a woman who is unhappy due to her status and position in society.
