Olive Schreiner (1855–1920) is remembered as one of South Africa’s most influential literary figures and a pioneering feminist. Her works and activism during the late 19th and early 20th centuries left a lasting impact on literature, politics, and social reform in her home country and beyond.
Women's Day; an ode from Olive Schreiner
Posted on Tue August 9, 2016.
Olive Schreiner a celebrated South African novelist was a radical feminist, and at one time a resident of Matjiesfontein, too.
“The woman wanderer goes forth to seek the Land of Freedom.
“How am I to get there?” Reason answers: “here is one way, and one only. Down the banks of Labour, through the water of suffering. There is no other.”
The woman cries out: “For what do I go to this far land which no one has ever reached? Oh, I am alone! I am utterly alone!”
But soon she hears the sounds of feet, ‘a thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, and they beat this way!’
“They are the feet of those who shall follow you. Lead on.”
― Olive Schreiner
Tip: Stay in The Olive Schreiner Cottage: Olive Schreiner—one of the first voices of literature and feminism in South Africa—lived in Matjiesfontein for a number of years.
Further Reading
Olive Schreiner
Wed October 16, 2024
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SUMMER OF LOVE
Tue January 31, 2023
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“Love is more than a noun – it is a verb; it is more than a feeling – it is caring, sharing, helping, sacrificing.” – William Arthur Ward
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