Doris Lessing was born in Persia, now known as Iran, in October 1919. Her parents were British, with her mother working as a nurse and her father as a bank clerk. Unfortunately, their bank was destroyed during World War I. In 1925, the family decided to migrate to a British colony in Rhodesia, which is now Zimbabwe. The colonial government at that time offered economic incentives to encourage white settlers to move there. As a result, the family purchased 3,000 acres of farmland in Southern Rhodesia, an area previously inhabited by the Matabele tribe. It is important to note that the government had evicted all the tribes that used to reside on the lands sold to the white settlers. As Lessing continued her education and became interested into European and American literature, as well as works by nineteenth-century novelists, she became increasingly aware of racial injustice. She acknowledged that she belonged to the white minority, which had mistreated and continued to mistreat the black majority. This realization fueled her dedication to activism and socially-oriented writing. Lessing often referred to herself as an outsider in Southern Rhodesia and South Africa. Later in life, she faced belittlement from the men in her life when she expressed her passion for writing.