Janet was born in Retreat, Cape Town, in 1936. She lived in the Cape on farms for the first 50 years of her life. She obtained her BSc Agriculture (cum laude) from Stellenbosch University in1957, an MA in Religious Studies (with distinction) from the University of Cape Town in 1975, followed by a PhD in 1985. She lectured part-time in Religious Studies at UCT while bringing up four children.

Janet’s initiation into African Studies took place during her extensive field trips across the Eastern Cape and beyond for her academic work. During this time she had the privilege of listening to the life stories of a wide range of black African women from whom she gained considerable wisdom, insight and knowledge. The oral traditions they shared were of particular importance, the more so as most of them would now be dead. Much of this material was incorporated into her writing and teaching.

Janet spent fourteen years as a mission theologian in Britain This included national work as well as serving as the missioner in the Diocese of Durham. Here too it was her work among the seriously deprived working class women in the North-East of England that made her aware of the prevailing sexist, racist and class-based attitudes within the local communities and the established church. She also spent a year in Canada to research Native American cultural traditions. Once again it was her close association with women from many different Native American nations across the country that enabled her to witness their gender-based subjugation. She also participated in their people’s’ struggle for justice in trying to recover their homelands.

Having worked in solidarity all her life with women from around the globe who have suffered from oppression based on race, gender and class, Janet comes to us well equipped to narrate the story of Emma Sandile from a fresh perspective. In addition to her numerous academic articles and chapters in anthologies she has published 13 books in England, Canada and South Africa. These have been on a wide variety of subjects ranging from mission to African and Native American studies, indigenous spirituality, liberation theology and biographies.

Despite her fast failing eyesight due from age-related macular degeneration (AMD) she continues to write with sighted assistance from her daughter Carol. She now lives in Somerset West in the Western Cape of South Africa.