Letters of great women in moments that demanded their strength

EVERYDAY MATTERS MJ Daymond

Jacana Kyomuhendo, as well as major anthologies of women’s writing ( Women Writing Africa: The Southern Region, New York 2003) and feminist criticism ( South African Feminisms, New York 1996).

As Professor Lindy Stiebel said, in her introduction at the launch of this book, digital communications are fleeting in comparison to hard-copy correspondence in terms of longevity and accessibility, and this book could not have been compiled without the archived hard copies.

Brief thumbnail sketches of the women whose letters are collected in this book: Dora Taylor (1899-1976), the first of the volume’s correspondents, was born in Scotland, the illegitimate (sic) child of workingclass parents and experienced a childhood that was positively Dickensian.

Happily married, she immigrated to Cape Town and soon became the unofficial secretary of the Non-European Unity Movement as well as a writer of political articles and reviews. Bessie Head also had a miser- able early childhood, the “illegitimate” daughter of a wealthy white woman and a black stable hand, she eventually became an internationally praised novelist in the 1960s and ’70s, the period of the letters published here – written while in self-imposed exile in Botswana.

Lilian Ngoyi was a leading trade unionist in the 1950s and 1960s: she was the first woman to be elected to the ANC’s national executive, and helped launch the Federation of South African Women. She suffered severe deprivation when she was banned and put under house arrest in her “matchbox” house in Soweto.

All the letters deal with domestic matters (hence the title) and the problems experienced during exile and banning. In Dora’s case, the letters are to her daughter Sheila, who has to sell the family home in Cape Town and dispose of all the contents when it becomes clear that her parents cannot return.

Bessie also chose voluntary exile in Botswana, even though as a mixed race woman she was neither accepted nor ever really comfortable there. At least she had her own house and vegetable garden, as well as her determined efforts to establish a communal garden.

Added to Bessie’s problems were her decline, at times, into mental illness and troubles with her son. Her letters are addressed to Paddy, an English writer who shared her interest in gardening and literature.

Lilian had the worst of things (in my opinion) detained without trial, banned, under house arrest, with no family support (her daughter was an alcoholic) and no source of income, her situation was, indeed, dire.

Amnesty International, in adopting her as a prisoner of conscience, saved her life. First assigned by Amnesty but later simply a beloved friend, Belinda Allan sent Lilian books, money, and most of all, hope.

The letters are fascinating, if repetitive, I would have loved to read the “other side” of the correspondences.

MARGARET DAYMOND is professor emeritus in the English department at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, as well as a fellow of the university. Most of her research has been on women’s writing. She has edited fiction by writers such as Bessie Head,...