From the Heart Women and Liberation in New Writings by Black South African Women

A shorter version of this paper was presented at the 1991 African Literature Association Conference in New Orleans. The paper attempts to explore black South African women's representation of their experience, apartheid, and gender marginalization. The author acknowledges that while there are other anthologies of stories, the current collection is unique because, as the publishers indicate, it represents the work of women "who though knowing that they had the skill to write, had never dreamed that they would actually put it all in print" (Seriti Sechaba Publishers 1988:5). Moreover, the work gives these women an occasion to present the other side of the anti-apartheid liberation story, different from that often articulated by male writers.