Compared to some of her African contemporaries, such as novelists Chinua Achebe and Alan Paton, Head has not received a great deal of critical attention. Her novels are often hailed by feminists, while her short fiction has received some attention for its portrayal of village life and tradition. "Snapshots of a Wedding," from Head's 1977 volume of short stories The Collector of Treasures and Other Botswana Village Tales, has received critical attention along both of these lines.

In his Bessie Head: An Introduction, Craig MacKenzie writes that The Collector of Treasures and Other Botswana Village Tales "goes on to explore in a more outward-reaching way the life of Head's adoptive village. The short story as a genre—particularly in Head's use of it—seems singularly able to cope with the material yielded by the author's more objective interest in episodes of village life." Just as...