5 Bessie Head, A Woman Alone: Autobiographical Writings, London, Heinemann, 1990, p.73.

This is the sort of thing no one plans for in Africa: the possibility that Africa can produce a lot of poverty. There is only a wild rush for power and a kind of war of extermination of anyone who is a threat to those who seek power. I tended to be caught in the intensity of this dialogue and for a long time (through three novels) held on to the same theme. I would deliberately create heroes and show their willingness to abdicate from positions of power and absorb themselves in activities which would be of immense benefit to people.