Head, Bessie Emery (1937–1986)

South African writer who took Botswanan citizenship in 1979. Living in exile in Botswana from 1964, Head wrote fiction concerned with issues of personal and national identity, incorporating an unidealized sense of social and communal history. Her novels include When Rain Clouds Gather (1969), Maru (1971), and A Question of Power (1973). Among her collections of short stories is The Collector of Treasures and Other Botswana Village Tales (1977).