DRAWN IN COLOUR, African Contrasts by Noni Jabavu

Hardcover with dust jacket published by John Murray 1960

Inscription written on front page

Helen Nontando (Noni) Jabavu was born in 1919* in the Eastern Cape into a literary family. From the age of thirteen, she was schooled in England, and continued to live there for many years. She went on to become one of the first African female writers and journalists.

In 1955 Noni Jabavu returned to South Africa for a three-month stay. She visited her father, Professor D.D.T. Jabavu, of Fort Hare, as well as relatives in the Eastern Cape and Johannesburg. The Ochre People, first published in 1963, is a poignant account of her trip, and contains vivid and perceptive memories of the country she loved and of the people she met.

The Ochre People is one of her two autobiographical works; the other is Drawn in Colour (1960). Both were written early in her literary career and have been hailed by critics as being brilliant and fascinating, the works indicate that she preferred positioning herself as being simultaneously an African and a European, tracing her origins in both England and South Africa. In her books she looked at the alienation she felt, issues of identity and the impact of the West on Africa