Lauretta Ngcobo
Lauretta Ngcobo (1931 – 3 November 2015)[1] was a South African novelist and essayist.[2] After being in exile between 1963 and 1994, she lived in Durban.[3] 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".[4]
Background
The daughter of teachers Rosa (née Cele) and Simon Gwina, Lauretta was born in Ixopo, KwaZulu-Natal[5] 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 .[6] She taught for two years, then took a job with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in Pretoria.[6]
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.[6] 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 school for 25 years.[2] She was eventually appointed head of the south London 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.[6] She also found time to write two novels, Cross of Gold (1981) and And They Didn't Die (1990), as well as being the editor of Let It be Told: Essays by Black Women Writers in Britain (1987).
Ngcobo returned to South Africa with her family in 1994, following the election in which the ANC came to power. Her husband died in 1997.[5]
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.[3]
She died in hospital in Johannesburg on Tuesday, 3 November 2015, following a stroke.[1]
Awards
In 2006, she received the Lifetime Achievement Literary Award of the South African Literary Awards.[2] In 2008, she was awarded the Order of Ikhamanga for her work in literature and in promoting gender equality.[5] She was named an eThekwini Living Legend in 2012, and in 2014 she received an honorary doctorate of Technology in Arts and Design from Durban University of Technology.[1]
Selected works
- Cross of Gold (1981), novel
- Let It Be Told: Essays by Black Women Writers in Britain (Pluto Press, 1987), editor
- And They Didn't Die (1990), novel
- Fikile Learns to Like Other People (1994), children's book[2]
- Prodigal Daughters — Stories of South African Women in Exile (2012), editor[5]
References
- 1 2 3 "Lauretta Ngcobo: author, teacher and activist", News24, 5 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.
- 1 2 3 4 Lyn Innes, "Lauretta Ngcobo obituary", The Guardian, 19 November 2015.