Mbuyiseni Oswald Mtshali - a short biography and bibliography of this KwaZulu-Natal author.
Oswald Joseph Mtshali (1940 - ) was born in
Vryheid, KwaZulu-Natal, where
he matriculated. He travelled to Johannesburg at the age
of
eighteen intending to enrol at the University of
Witwatersrand, but was refused
because of the separate universities legislation. He was
working as a messenger
in Soweto when he published his first volume of poetry
Sounds of a Cowhide Drum
in 1971, considered a significant landmark in South
African literature. Mtshali left for the USA to study
creative writing and education at Columbia
University. On his return to South Africa, he published
Fireflames (1980), a
collection of militant poems, which was banned by the
government, then unbanned in
1986. Mtshali is now Adjunct Professor at the New York
City College of
Technology where he teaches African folklore and modern
African history. In
1971 he was awarded the Olive Schreiner Poetry Prize and
in 1973 the Poetry
International Award, London.
Selected WorkThe Birth of Shaka from Fireflames (1980)
His baby cry
was of a cub
tearing the neck
of the lioness
because he was fatherless.
The gods
boiled his blood
in a clay pot of passion
to course in his veins.
His heart was shaped into an ox shield
to foil every foe.
Ancestors forged
his muscles into
thongs as tough
as water bark
and nerves
as sharp as
syringa thorns.
His eyes were lanterns
that shone from the dark valleys of Zululand
to see white swallows
coming across the sea.
His cry to two assassin brothers:
"Lo! you can kill me
but you'll never rule this land! Bibliography1971. Sounds of a Cowhide Drum.
1980. Fireflames.
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