Lauretta Ngcobo
| Lauretta Ngcobo | |
|---|---|
| Born |
13 September 1931 Ixopo, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa |
| Died |
3 November 2015 (aged 84) Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Nationality | South African |
| Occupation | Novelist, essayist, teacher, activist |
| Notable work |
And They Didn't Die (1990) Cross of Gold (1981) |
Lauretta Ngcobo (13 September 1931 – 3 November 2015)[1][2] was a South African novelist and essayist.[3] After being in exile between 1963 and 1994, she lived in Durban.[4] Her writings between the 1960s and early 1990s have been described as offering "significant insights into the experiences of Black women of apartheid's vagaries".[5] As a novelist she is best known for And They Didn't Die (1990), set in 1950s South Africa and portraying "the particular oppression of women who struggle to survive, work the land and maintain a sense of dignity under the apartheid system while their husbands seek work in the mines and cities."[2]
Early years
The daughter of teachers Rosa (née Cele) and Simon Gwina, Lauretta was born in Ixopo, KwaZulu-Natal,[6] and grew up there. She attended Inanda Seminary School, near Durban, going on to become the first woman from her area to study at the University of Fort Hare.[2] She taught for two years, then took a job with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in Pretoria.[2]
In 1957 she married Abednego Bhekabantu Ngcobo, a founder and member of the executive of the Pan Africanist Congress, who in 1961 was sentenced to two years' imprisonment under the Suppression of Communism Act.[2]
Exile, 1963–94
In 1963, facing imminent arrest, she fled the country with her two young children, moving to Swaziland, then Zambia and finally England, where she taught at primary school level for 25 years.[3] She was eventually appointed deputy head and then acting head of Lark Hall Infant School in Lambeth, south London[7] school where she was the only black staff member, and in 1984 she became president of ATCAL (the Association for the Teaching of Caribbean, African, Asian and Associated Literatures.[2] She also found time to write two novels, Cross of Gold (1981) and And They Didn't Die (1990), which has been described as "path-breaking in its portrayal of the experiences of a black woman that gives its main character, Jezile, an interiority and a voice rarely seen in South African literature before this novel’s publication. It is singular in highlighting the damaging, overlapping effects of apartheid and customary law on the lives of African women confined to apartheid Bantustans."[8] In addition Ngcobo was the editor of Let It be Told: Essays by Black Women Writers in Britain (1987). She also wrote a children's book, Fikile Learns to Like Other People (1994), and in 2012 edited an anthology of stories of South African women in exile, entitled Prodigal Daughters, which was chosen as a Book of the Year by Neelika Jayawardane of Africa is a Country.[9]
Return to South Africa
Ngcobo returned to South Africa with her family in 1994, following the election in which the African National Congress (ANC) came to power. Her husband died in 1997.[6]
In South Africa she again taught for a while before becoming a Member of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature, where she spent 11 years before retiring in 2008.[4] She published many academic articles, attended many writers' conferences, and delivered papers at various universities.[10]
She died in hospital in Johannesburg on Tuesday, 3 November 2015, following a stroke.[1] The The Sunday Times (South Africa) obituary described her as a "writer and activist who gave vulnerable women a voice",[11] while Barbara Boswell of the African Gender Institute at the University of Cape Town wrote: "Lauretta Ngcobo’s death has robbed us of a significant literary talent, freedom fighter, and feminist voice."[8]
Awards
In 2006, Ngcobo received the Lifetime Achievement Literary Award of the South African Literary Awards.[3] In 2008, she was awarded the Order of Ikhamanga for her work in literature and in promoting gender equality.[6] She was named an eThekwini Living Legend in 2012, and in 2014 received an honorary doctorate of Technology in Arts and Design from Durban University of Technology.[1]
Selected works
Novels
- Cross of Gold, novel (Prentice Hall, 1981, ISBN 978-0582785199)
- And They Didn't Die, novel (London: Virago Books, 1990, ISBN 978-1853811531)
As editor
- Let It Be Told: Essays by Black Women Writers in Britain (Pluto Press, 1987, ISBN 978-0745302546; new edn Virago Books, 1988, ISBN 978-0860686330)
- Prodigal Daughters — Stories of South African Women in Exile (University Kwazulu Natal Press, 2012, ISBN 978-1869142346)[6]
For children
- Fikile Learns to Like Other People (1994)[3]
References
- 1 2 3 "Lauretta Ngcobo: author, teacher and activist", News24, 5 November 2015.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Lyn Innes, "Lauretta Ngcobo obituary", The Guardian, 19 November 2015.
- 1 2 3 4 "Lauretta Ngcobo". South African Literary Awards.
- 1 2 "Authorship & Ownership in TV Drama", biographical note, Mail & Guardian, 25 April–1 May 2008. Official Input 2008 Blog.
- ↑ Angelo Fick, "In memoriam, Lauretta Ngcobo (1931-2015)", eNCA, 6 November 2015.
- 1 2 3 4 [http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global[_id]=82261 "Stories of exile"]. The Witness. 6 January 2012.
- ↑ Gaele Sobott, "In memory of Lauretta Ngcobo 1931-2015", 12 November 2015.
- 1 2 Barbara Boswell, "Reflections on Lauretta Ngcobo’s feminist contribution to African literature", Vanguard, 12 November 2015.
- ↑ Tom Devriendt, "Our Favorite Books of 2012", Africa is a Country, 31 December 2012.
- ↑ "Lauretta Ngcobo", South African History Online.
- ↑ Chris Barron, "Obituary: Lauretta Ngcobo, writer and activist who gave vulnerable women a voice", Sunday Times, 8 November 2015.
External links
- Dan Moshenberg, "And she didn’t die: Lauretta Ngcobo and the political economy of women’s 'vulnerability'", The Journalist.