This book examines the life and work of Mazisi Kunene, the only recognized poet laureate of Africa, a Nobel Prize nominee, and a key symbol of African cultural independence.
Kunene is widely recognized for his epic poems that assert cultural identity and condemn the disruption of the growth and development of African culture through colonialism/postcolonialism. This book explores how ‘oraliterature’ and cultural traditions informed Kunene’s poetry, how Kunene’s poetry highlights African women and mothers, and how activism, mythology and transnational identities are depicted in his verse to promote cultural and generational continuities from Africa to the Diasporic Africans. Drawing on a range of interviews and comparative studies, the book situates Kunene’s work in a wider conversation about South African social struggles.
This book is an important contribution to our understanding of one of the giants of African literary history. As such, it will be of interest to researchers across African literary and postcolonial studies.
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
SECTION I 9
1 After the UNESCO award: Mazisi Kunene’s poetic output 11
2 Literature and cultural identity in Kunene’s poetry 22
3 Imagery and tradition: Mazisi Kunene and Kofi Awoonor 28
4 Nostalgic aesthetics/themes in Mazisi Kunene’s work 35
5 Simultaneous existence (historical timelessness) and order
of literature in Kunene’s work 42
SECTION II 53
6 Mazisi Kunene’s ‘love poems’: a critical analysis 55
7 Teaching Mazisi Kunene to American students 64
8 An appreciation: Mazisi Kunene (1930–2006) 67
SECTION III 71
9 The greatness of Mazisi Kunene: (An interview between
Ntongela Masilela and Dike Okoro) 73
10 The legacy of Mazisi Kunene: (An interview between
Lupenga Mphande and Dike Okoro) 111
Index 123
Biography
Dike Okoro is Associate Professor of English and Chair of the Humanities Department at Harris Stowe State University, USA. He is the author of Lupenga Mphande: Eco-critical Poet and Political Activist (2021). Okoro is a Senior Research Fellow at Ken Saro-Wiwa Foundation and a past visiting scholar at University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.
"I have collaborated with Dike Okoro on several projects dealing with Zulu literature in particular, and African literature in general. He is one of the most promising members of the new generation of literary critics and writers to come out of African in recent years."
Lupenga Mphanda, PhD, Professor of African Languages/Literature, The Ohio State University/USA
"Dike Okoro has already established himself as an urgent and necessary literary critic and scholar of African and African Diaspora Literature. As such, Mazisi Kunene: Literature, Activism, and African Worldview will be an important contribution to the growing need for books on African poets in Africa and around the world."
Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, Author, Praise Song for My Children: New & Selected Poems
"Dr. Dike Okoro has proven himself as one of the premier scholars of African poetry. This book is timely and would constitute an important reference for future research on Mazisi Kunene and other South African poets."
Chielozona Eze, PhD, Bernard J. Brommel Distinguished Research Professor, NEIU & Extraordinary Professor of English at Stellenbosch University, South Africa
