BLACK BACKGROUND: The Childhood of a South African Girl

ora Thizwilondi Magidi is one of the 250,000 Venda who dwell in the Republic of South Africa, mostly in the Northern Transvaal. John Blacking remarks fairly extensively upon the life of the tribe, whom he finds sociable and cooperative ""because they make a conscious effort to live according to the laws of nature"", and comments too upon the sociological factors revealed by Dora's autobiography. Then she tells about the circumstances and events of her girlhood in frank, attractive, friendly fashion. Her stories of school days, where nature study taught her to grow maize better, of visits to Johannesburg, where she bought a dress and went to the zoo, of being a cousin's bridesmaid and witnessing a possession dance, of work parties and neighborhood scraps, of mad dogs and the health officers inoculating the villagers, give a distinct view of a culture touched by modern, Christian civilization. As a brief case history, of limited interest; the autobiography may effectively appeal to age-mates.