It will include both international and local Head scholars. The symposium is being organised by the University of Botswana's English Department and the newly formed Bessie Head Heritage Trust.
In conjunction with this event, Pentagon Publishers recently launched the first ever Botswana anthology of writing on Bessie Head entitled Writing Bessie Head in Botswana: An Anthology of Remembrance and Criticism, which is edited by Mary Lederer and Seatholo Tumedi. Many of the papers to be presented and discussed at the UB symposium are included in the book.
A play based on Bessie Head's short stories will round off the two-day event. Snapshots will be performed at Maitisong on the evening of the 6th of July. A local, Gaborone based theatre group, Enigma, in partnership with UB students will perform the play. There will be another performance at the Bessie Head celebrations in Serowe on July 15.
The Bessie Head Heritage Trust is a non-profit making organisation set up to promote and preserve the literary legacy of Bessie Head. Head is the author of five novels including Maru, a Question of Power and When Rain Clouds Gather. She was born in South Africa but fled the racist apartheid regime and made her home in Serowe in 1964. She died in 1986 at the age of 49.
