Olive Schreiner

19th - 20th Century

Photograph of Olive Schreiner. Image: J4739, Western Cape Archives and Records Service

“No woman has the right to marry a man if she has to bend herself out of shape for him. She might wish to, but she could never be to him with all her passionate endeavour what the other woman could be to him without trying.”

Olive Emilie Albertina Schreiner was to many the first great novelist from South Africa. “The story of an African Farm” was that great novel and its heroine, Lyndall, held values that mirrored Olive’s own beliefs. Using the pseudonym of Ralph Iron, she released the novel without expecting readers to discover her identity. It soon became a bestseller in and throughout North America, England, and Europe. Her identity was finally revealed when a second edition of her book was released.

Olive was outspoken on issues relating to women and became a prolific writer and feminist. Her upbringing had been particularly hard, with her father working from a remote mission station. Her mother, a stern woman, was strongly rooted in conservative, patriarchal beliefs. These aspects contributed to Olive’s disdain for patriarchy, religion, and conservatism. She was a dedicated pacifist and opposed British control and imperialism.

Olive campaigned against the British during the South African (Anglo-Boer) War and spoke up for the rights of both “boers” and “blacks.”

In 1907 she became the vice-president of the Cape Town branch of the Women’s Enfranchisement League, but later left the organisation when it excluded women of colour.

Four years later Olive released her book entitled Women and Labour. Her thoughts and philosophies became the heartbeat of the women’s movement for equality both in South Africa and abroad. When she died in 1920, she had one request: to be buried in the grave of her daughter who had died a neonatal death in 1895.

Olive was an early pioneer for women’s rights, as well as a social commentator who believed in equality regardless of gender or race. Her works remain important as culturally relevant, providing some of South Africa’s first written feminist commentary of the 19th and 20th centuries.