"Head Tells Stories": A Scandalous Emancipatory Strategy

Abstract

The autobiographical material relating to Bessie Head's origins was not only adhered to by her in her life but is also inscribed in her fiction, notably in A Question of Power and Maru. The "truth" of her story of origins has been the subject of heated academic exchanges in South Africa, her country of origin. Head's story is examined as a paradoxical emancipa­tory strategy that both locks her into South Africa's most banal racist metaphor and also releases her to negotiate her empowerment.
The paper examines the racist discourse of pre-apartheid South Africa, which produced Bessie Head's story of her origins and which continues to operate as a subtext to contemporary discourse. The two early novels, Maru and A Question of Power, are examined as re-writings of Head's story, in which the conflict between racial identity and subjectivity is a central thematic concern. The novels are read as testimonies both to the power of ideology to affect the material and discursive subject and to Head's struggle to find her voice as a woman writer of mixed ancestry in Africa.

Opsomming
Bessie Head het nie net gedurende haar lewe by die outobiografiese gegewens wat verband hou met haar oorsprong gebly nie, maar dit is ook in haar fiksie ingeskryf, soos blyk in A Question of Power en Maru. In Suid-Afrika, haar land van oorsprong, was die "waarheid" van haar weergawe van oorsprong die onderwerp van hewige akademiese debatte. Head se weergawe word ondersoek as 'n paradoksale emansiperende strategie wat haar beide in Suid-Afrika se mees banale rasistiese metafoor vasvang en haar in staat stel om te beding vir haar bemagtiging.
Hierdie artikel ondersoek die rassistiese diskoers van voor-apartheid Suid-Afrika wat Bessie Head se verhaal van haar oorsprong opgelewer het en wat steeds dien as subteks tot kontemporêre diskoers. Die twee vroeëre verhale, Maru en A Question of Power, word ondersoek as herskrywings van Head se verhaal, waarin die konflik tussen rassistiese identiteit en subjektiwiteit 'n sentrale tematiese kwessie is. Die verhale word beskou as getuienis, beide van die mag van ideologie om die materiële en diskursiewe subjek te beïnvloed en van Head se stryd om 'n stem te verkry as vroue-skryfster van gemengde afkoms in Afrika.