The Amsterdam Comité tegen Censuur (‘Committee Against Censorship’ which was set up by the SLAA literary association last year as a Dutch offshoot of Index) has organised a series of talks by well-known writers on various aspects of censorship and repression. The first of these talks was given in June by the Uruguayan poet Mario Benedetti. In the second, on 11 September, the South African novelist Miriam Tlali dealt with the problems facing a black writer in her native land, and in particular with the even greater obstacles which a black woman writer has to overcome. This is an edited version of Miriam Tlali's text.