Zulu poems

Literature & Fiction

Kunene, Mazisi

Poetry

Deutsch

<p>Tells how the Zulu's themselves view their empire, both in the past and the present.</p>

Emperor Shaka the Great: A Zulu Epic (UNESCO Collection of Representative Works African Authors Series) (English and Zulu Edition)

History

World

Heinemann

Anthem of the Decades: A Zulu Epic (African Writers Series) (English and Zulu Edition)

Genre Fiction

Zulu Poems

Africana Publishing Corporation

<p>[Text of this volume is in isiZulu] Mazisi Kunene is the much-celebrated author of epics, such as Emperor Shaka the Great (UNodumehlezi KaMenzi) and Anthem of the Decades (Inhlokomo Yeminyaka), as well as numerous poems, short stories, nursery rhymes and proverbs that amount to a collection of more than 10 000 works. He was born in aMahlongwa in 1930, a small rural village on the South Coast of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. As a young man born into Zulu tradition, his calling as an imbongi was taken very seriously by his father and grandfather who encouraged him to write. Professor Kunene described this 'calling' to write as 'something [that] is not me, it is the power that rides me like a horse.' Kunene was Professor in African Literature at Stanford University and in African Literature and Languages at the University of California, Los Angeles. On his return to South Africa, he was Professor in African Languages at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He went into exile in the 1960s for more than 34 years, during which time he established and managed the African National Congress office in London, and later moved to Los Angeles with his family to pursue his academic career. In his epic poem Emperor Shaka the Great (UNodumehlezi KaMenzi), which he wrote during this exile period, he positions Shaka as a legendary thinker, who had great skill as a strategic and military genius. This vision acknowledges and re-imagines Shaka as a unifying cultural and political force that defined the cohesive Zulu nation. Kunene projects Shaka into the mythical ancestral universe that affirms the deep cultural lineage of the African world view. This isiZulu edition was published on the tenth anniversary of his death, embracing Kunene's original dream to have his poem published as intended in the original isiZulu form. The symbolic and cultural significance of these publications begins a process of re-evaluating and recontextualising Kunene's writing oeuvre. [Subject: Poetry, Fiction, African Studies]</p>

Unodumehlezi Kamenzi

History & Criticism

University Of KwaZulu-Natal Press

Mazisi Kunene was South Africa's first poet laureate, one of the most important voices of twentieth century African poetry, whether in African or European languages. His four collections of poems published in English are still considered classics and major works of imaginative creation in African literature. This posthumous selection of 52 poems explores the cosmology and mythology of his Zulu heritage from a universal perspective is what defines the ethos of his opus. Much of his poetry is imbued with themes that touch on history, family, legacy, and the importance of the ancestors, worded in innovative language and steeped in vision that make his writing unique.

Echoes from the Mountain. New and Selected Poems by Mazisi Kunene (Malthouse African Poetry)

Malthouse Press

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