Bessie Head published her first novel, When Rain Clouds Gather, while exiled in Botswana in 1968. Following the journey of its protagonist, Makhaya, an escapee from apartheid South Africa, the novel is a poignant exploration of hope in the midst of despair. Taking their title from Head’s novel, South African curators Portia Malatjie and Nontobeko Ntombela have meticulously woven together a survey of important works in “When Rain Clouds Gather: Black South African Women Artists, 1940–2000” part research study and part commemoration. “When Rain Clouds Gather” bears the stamp of its authors, whose