The Psychology of the Oppressed

While Head finds the people of Botswana fascinating and peaceful and wishes to identify with them, she cannot. Instead, she describes herself as violent and full of rage. Others confirm her sense of herself, sometimes describing her as angry and combative, at least when she is depressed. Head recognizes that her anger is due to her depression but she believes the real life cause of her depression and anger is, in part, the oppression she endures in South Africa.

Remember that Head is given up for adoption. Her parents are unknown to her and she is taken away from the only woman she knows as her mother. She grows up not only enduring the rejection of family but of the South African elites. In her short adult life in South Africa, Head becomes increasingly aware of the horrors of the apartheid regime and begins...