BLACK BACKGROUND: The Childhood of a South African Girl

Dora Thizwilondi Magidi is one of the 250,000 Venda who dwell in the Republic of South Africa. From the time she was fourteen she started writing about her life, presented here with amplifying, analytical comment by John Blacking. Dora tells about the circumstances and events of her girlhood in appealing, friendly fashion. Her stories of school days, of visits to Johannesburg, of being a cousin's bridesmaid and witnessing a possession dance, of health officers inoculating villagers against rabies, give a distinct view of a culture touched by modern, Christian civilization. She closes her account with a graduation; she hopes to continue her studies and become a nurse. Fellow teen agers will find her account simpatico.