(The autobiography of Mary Benson, a white South African w...)
The autobiography of Mary Benson, a white South African writer, known for her work against apartheid, whose life illustrates a public and personal drama. She describes her early years, spent in Hollywood and her life as a dedicated worker against apartheid.
Mary Benson was a South African civil rights campaigner, an opponent of South Africa’s apartheid policy, who wrote about and supported members of the African National Congress, who were charged with treason, including Nelson Mandela. In addition, Mary wrote a number of radio plays and documentaries.
Background
Ethnicity:
Her father was of Irish descent and her mother descended from 1820 settlers in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.
Mary Benson was born on December 8, 1919, in Pretoria, South Africa, into a white middle-class family. She was a daughter of Cyril Benson, an Irish administrator of the Pretoria General Hospital, and his wife, Lucy (Stubbs) Benson.
Career
During the period from 1941 till 1945, Mary served in the South African Women's Army, having become a captain and serving as a personal assistant to British generals in Egypt and Italy. In 1950, she was made a personal assistant to David Lean, an English film director. In 1951, when the exiled Tshekedi Khama of the then Bechuanaland (Botswana) came to Britain to negotiate for his return home, she acted as his secretary, the first African she had ever worked for.
In 1952, Benson co-founded the African Bureau, an agency, that campaigned for black rights in South Africa, together with Reverend Michael Scott. Later, in 1957, she served as a secretary to Treason Trials Defence Fund in Johannesburg. Some time later, in 1961, Benson took on another secretarial role, moving to Natal (present-day KwaZulu-Natal) to assist Chief Albert Lutuli, when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1962, Mary helped to smuggle Nelson Mandela out of South Africa and interviewed several prominent figures in the African National Congress, including Walter Sisulu and James Calata. The following year, in 1963, Benson testified to the United Nations Committee on Apartheid as the first South African to do so.
Mary's first book, a biography of black South African Tshekedi Khama, was published in 1960, and that was followed by her 1963 "Chief Albert Lutuli of South Africa" and "The African Patriots: The Story of the African National Congress". Her later works include the biography "Nelson Mandela" and a book of her memoirs, called "A Far Cry". Benson also wrote a number of radio plays, that were produced by the British Broadcasting Company, including "At the Still Point", which was based on her novel of the same title.
In 1966, Benson was served with a banning order and subjected to house arrest. She subsequently left South Africa and lived in exile, settling down in London, United Kingdom. Mary returned to her native country in 1990.
During her lifetime, Mary Benson never lost her interest in the film and theatre world, co-operating with playwright Athol Fugard in the production of his works in Britain and America. Also, Mary edited Fugard's "The Sun Will Rise: Statements from the Dock by South African Political Prisoners" (1974) and "Notebooks: 1960–1977" (1983). In her late years, she continued with her own attempts to write for the stage and the screen - but now always on the theme of oppression in her own country.
On February 16, 1997, Mary acted as a "castaway" on the BBC Radio programme "Desert Island Discs".
Mary stood against South Africa’s apartheid policy. She was particularly vocal in opposing the formation of the ill-fated Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and lobbied furiously for reforms in the British territories of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland.
In the early 1950's, Mary aided the radical Anglican priest, the Reverend Michael Scott, and helped him found the African Bureau in 1952. It was in 1962, that she became a close friend of Nelson Mandela and assisted with smuggling him out of South Africa. In 1963, Benson became the first South African to testify to the United Nations Committee on Apartheid. In 1966, she was banned and placed under house arrest before going into exile.
Views
Alan Paton's novel "Cry, the beloved country" (1948), whose main theme was racial discrimination in South Africa, had a great impact on Benson. After reading the work, Mary became a campaigner for the rights of black people there.
Personality
Physical Characteristics:
Mary suffered from rheumatoid arthritis.