Google nod for SA author
Search engine honours author
The 85th birthday of the first black woman to publish a novel was commemorated yesterday with Google SA putting up a doodle in her honour. Born on November 11 1933 in Doornfontein‚ Johannesburg‚ the late Miriam Tlali grew up in Sophiatown. Her family was forcefully removed to Moroka‚ Soweto‚ in 1962.
Tlali‚ who died in 2017‚ published Muriel at Metropolitan in 1975 about her time as a clerk at a furniture store in Johannesburg at the height of apartheid.
She was also the author of the critically acclaimed Amandla‚ which reflected on the 1976 student uprising. Her literature took her all over the world‚ including a residency at Yale University. “I was surprised that I was the first black woman to write a book. I took it for granted that there must be someone else who had authored literature‚ only to find out that when I had finished writing and submitted it to the publisher‚ that I was in fact the first African woman in South Africa to write and publish a book‚” Tlali was quoted as saying in Sunday World.
In 1984‚ she wrote a collection of short stories titled Mihloti. In 1989‚ Footprints in the Quag: Stories and Dialogues from Soweto was published. Daniella Hess reported in Sunday World in 2014 that Tlali had matriculated at the age of 15.
While she registered to study for a BA at Wits University‚ tightened apartheid laws scuppered this.
She then headed to the Pius XII Catholic University (now the University of Lesotho) but was unable to continue her studies due to financial constraints.
This was when she found a job as a bookkeeper at the furniture store‚ which she disliked so much she left the position to be a stay-at-home mother and care for her ailing mother-in-law in 1969. It was then that Tlali wrote Muriel at Metropolitan.
Among numerous awards‚ she received the presidential award‚ the Order of Ikhamanga (Silver), in 2008.
The Sunday Times reported in her obituary last year that Tlali was survived by two grandchildren and two greatgrandchildren. –