Born: 13 September 1931, South Africa
Died: 3 November 2015
Country most active: International
Also known as: Lauretta Gladys Nozizwe Duyu Gwina
Award-winning South African novelist and essayist Lauretta Ngcobo was exiled from her home country for more than 30 years. Her work from this period has been described as providing “significant insights into the experiences of Black women of apartheid’s vagaries.” Her best-known novel, 1990’s And They Didn’t Die, is set in 1950s South Africa and depicts “the particular oppression of women who struggle to survive, work the land and maintain a sense of dignity under the apartheid system while their husbands seek work in the mines and cities.”
Born and raised in Ixopo, KwaZulu-Natal as the daughter of two teachers, she was the first woman from her area to study at the University of Fort Hare. After teaching for two years, she began working with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in Pretoria. In 1956, she was one of approximately 20,000 women to participate in the Women’s March on 9 August, protesting the 1952 pass laws that restricted Black women’s movements. The following year, she married Abednego Bhekabantu Ngcobo, a founder and member of the executive of the Pan Africanist Congress. In 1961, he was sentenced to prison for two years under the Suppression of Communism Act.
In 1963, facing imminent arrest herself, Ngcobo fled South Africa with her two young children. They went first to Swaziland, where her husband rejoined the family. They next lived in Zambia before settling in the U.K., where she taught primary school for 25 years. Later promoted to deputy head and then acting head of Lark Hall Infant School in London, she was the only Black staff member. In 1984, she became president of the Association for the Teaching of Caribbean, African, Asian and Associated Literatures, advocating for more diverse curricula in British schools.
In addition to And They Didn’t Die, she published another novel, Cross of Gold, about the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, in 1981. She also edited Let It be Told: Essays by Black Women Writers in Britain (1987) and the story collection Prodigal Daughters (2012), about South African women in exile. Her children’s book, Fikile Learns to Like Other People, was published in 1994.
After the African National Congress came to power in the 1994 election, Ngcobo and her family returned to South Africa. She continued teaching for several years before being elected as a Member of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature. She served in that role for 11 years, retiring in 2008. She also published academic articles and spoke at universities. Her accolades included:
– Lifetime Achievement Literary Award of the South African Literary Awards (2006)
– Order of Ikhamanga in Silver for “excellent achievements in the field of literature and through her literary work championing the cause of gender equality in South Africa” (2008)
– eThekwini Living Legend (2012)
– honorary doctorate of Technology in Arts and Design from Durban University of Technology (2014).