The Sun Kept Shining

About the Book

"The Sun Kept Shining" is a collection of poignant stories of village life in South Africa during the apartheid era. Mr. Mkhize, the Schoolmaster, appears in all the stories thereby giving a sense of continuity. The stories reflect the struggles of black people and their success in maintaining their dignity and fortitude under extremely difficult circumstances. They tackled hardships by retaining a sense of community. Abiding anguish, particularly for the women, was the breakup of family life imposed upon them by the laws of segregation whereby men had to leave the rural areas to earn a living in towns and cities and the families were not permitted to join them. The stories are fictional but all are based on facts true to life at that time.

About the Author

Helen J. Anderson was born in Durban, South Africa. During the Second World War when her father served with the South African armed forces in North Africa and Italy, she attended Eshowe boarding school in Zululand and spent her holidays on her grandparents' sugar farm on the Natal north coast. After completing her education in South Africa, she lived in Salisbury, Rhodesia, later Zimbabwe, where she met her husband.

When the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was dissolved, the family moved from Salisbury to Lusaka, capital of the newly independent country, Zambia, and lived there for five years. That was followed by nine years in South Africa, after which she and her husband moved with their family to the Netherlands where they now live.