E.K.M. Dido (born 1951), often simply known as Dido, is a South African writer. With her first book Die storie van Monica Peters (1996), she became the first black woman to publish an Afrikaans-language novel.
E.K.M. Dido was born in 1951 in Tsomo, South Africa. [1] [2] [3] She was the oldest daughter in a family of 12 children. [4] Dido describes her parents as coloured, and she grew up speaking Afrikaans interchangeably with Xhosa. [1] [3] [5] She is also fluent in English. [1]
Dido went to a Catholic boarding school in Cradock. [1] [3] [4] She then trained as a nurse, eventually gaining a bachelor's in nursing administration, community nursing, and nursing education from the University of South Africa. [1] [3] [2] She settled in Cape Town in 1972. [1] [6] [4]
The author publishes under the name E.K.M. Dido. [1] She keeps private what E.K.M. stands for, only saying that it is a combination of her mother's, grandmother's, and great-grandmother's names. [1] [4]
Dido's writing focuses on South African women dealing with societal and personal issues in a country caught between modernity and tradition, and amid a swirl of cultural identities. [3] [7] She is considered a pioneer of Afrikaans literature. [3]
In 1996, she published Die storie van Monica Peters ("The Story of Monica Peters"). [1] With this, she became the first black woman to publish an Afrikaans-language novel. [1] [4] [7] [8] She had originally written the story in English before deciding to publish it in Afrikaans instead. [1] [3] She rejects "the bad idea that Afrikaans belongs to white people." [9]
Her 2000 novel ’n Stringetjie blou krale ("A String of Blue Beads") was considered her real breakthrough, dealing with issues of racial identity and "coloured" ancestry in South Africa. [1] [2] [6] [7] [10] It was followed by the novels Die onsigbares (2003) and ’n Ander eki (2007). [1]
Her short stories have been included in Afrikaans anthologies and in the English-language collection In the Rapids: New South African Stories (2001). [2] [3] [6]
She has been involved with the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees and served as director of Suidoosterfees, a cultural festival in Cape Town. [1] [11] In 2012, as part of Suidoosterfees, she adapted her short story "Baby" for the stage. [12] [13]
In 2005, Dido was granted an honorary doctorate in literature from the University of the Western Cape. [1] Alongside her literary efforts, she continued to teach nursing in the suburbs of Cape Town. [1] [14]