Miriam Tlali

Miriam Tlali (11 November 1933 – 24 February 2017) was a South African novelist. She was the first black woman in South Africa to publish an English-language novel,

Life and work Miriam Masoli Tlali She attended St Cyprian's Anglican School and then Madibane High School. She studied at the University of the Witwatersrand until it was closed to Blacks during the apartheid era; she later went to the National University of Lesotho (then called Pius the XII University) at Roma, Lesotho.

Tlali drew on her experiences as an office clerk for her first book, Muriel at Metropolitan, a semi-autobiographical novel whose "viewpoint is a new one in South African literature". Although written in 1969, it was not published for six years, being rejected by many publishing houses in South Africa. In 1975 Ravan Press published Muriel at Metropolitan: "only after removing certain extracts they thought would certainly offend the Censorship Board — the South African literary watchdog. But despite this effort, the novel was banned almost immediately after publication because the Censorship Board pronounced it undesirable in the South African political context." The book reached a wider audience after its publication in 1979 by Longman under her preferred title Between Two Worlds, In 1988, Tlali said in a paper delivered in Amsterdam before the Committee Against Censorship:

Her second novel, Amandla, which was based on the 1976 Soweto uprising, was also banned in South Africa soon after it was published in 1980.

Tlali co-founded and contributed to Staffrider magazine, for which she wrote a regular column, "Soweto Speaking", as well as writing for other South African publications, including the Rand Daily Mail.

Tlali's literary activities took her to different parts of the world, including the Netherlands, where she worked for a year, and the USA. In 1978, she participated in an international writing programme at Iowa State University, giving lectures in San Francisco, Atlanta, Washington DC, and New York, and between 1989 and 1990 was a visiting scholar at the Southern African Research Program at Yale University.

Tlali died in 2017 at the age of 83. A volume of her selected writings entitled Miriam Tlali: Writing Freedom, edited and introduced by Pumla Dineo Gqola, was published in 2021.

Personal life Miriam Tlali married Stephen Lehutso, and "followed the unusual practice for an African woman of her times when she decided to retain her maiden surname". Her husband died in 2001, and their two children also predeceased Tlali, son Moses in 2004 and daughter Molebogeng in 2012. Her son Moses had two children. Matsididi Karabo Lehutso and Palesa Lehutso. Matsididi passed in 2023. Survived are Miriams grandchildren and great grandchildren. Palesa Lehutso and her daughter whom Miriam named Masolinyana Lehutso. Also survived is Matsididi Lehutso's two children; his daughter Tshireletso Lehutso and his son Lesego Moshe Lehutso.

Awards and honours In 1995, Tlali was honoured by the South African government's Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology with a Literary Lifetime Achievement Award.

Features Oprah Winfrey magazine

Selected bibliography Muriel at Metropolitan, Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1975. As Between Two Worlds, Longman, 1979. Amandla, South Africa: Vivlia Publishers, 1980. Mihloti, Johannesburg: Skotaville, 1984. Footprints in the Quag, David Philip Publishers, 1989. As Soweto Stories, London: Pandora, 1989. Geteilte Welt (Muriel at the Metropolitan German translation), Lehutso Legacy LLC., 1975 Soweto Stories, German translation Lehutso Legacy LLC.