Agnes Sam


Agnes Sam is a South African writer.

Life

As a child of nine, Agnes Sam's great-grandfather had been 'shanghaied' into indentureship and brought to Durban in 1860 on the Lord George Bentinck II. Sam was thus born into an Indian family in Port Elizabeth, and grew up there, near the family business. She was educated at a Roman Catholic school in Port Elizabeth. There the Indian experience was never mentioned in history lessons:
Sam went on to study Zoology and Psychology at the National University of Lesotho, and trained as a teacher in Zimbabwe. After briefly teaching science in Zambia, she went into exile in 1973 in England, bringing up three children there while also attempting to take a further degree.
Most of the stories in Sam's debut collection, Jesus is Indian, are set in Port Elizabeth. She returned to South Africa in 1993.

Works