Mr Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali (born 17 January 1940) is a South African poet. He has written in Zulu,

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, and

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

. He studied at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. He now lives in greenhills.

First Book

Mtshali was born in

Vryheid Vryheid ( zu, IVryheid) is a coal mining and cattle ranching town in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Vryheid is the Afrikaans word for "freedom". History After Boer farmers, who lived in the Vryheid area, had helped King Dinuzulu defeat his ...

, Natal, South Africa."Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali"
Encyclopædia Britannica. He worked as a messenger in

Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...

before becoming a poet, and his first book, ''Sounds of a Cowhide Drum'' (1975), explores both the banality and extremity of

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

through the eyes of working men of South Africa, even while it recalls the energy of those Mtshali frequently calls simply "ancestors". Published with a preface by Nadine Gordimer, ''Sounds of a Cowhide Drum'' was one of the first books of poems by a black South African poet to be widely distributed. It provoked considerable debate among the white South African population, but was extremely successful, winning the

Olive Schreiner Prize The Olive Schreiner Prize has been awarded annually since 1961 to emerging writers in the field of drama, prose, or poetry. It is named after Olive Schreiner, the South African author and activist. It rewards promising novice work, by writers who ...

for 1974 and making a considerable profit for its white publisher,

Lionel Abrahams Lionel Abrahams (11 April 1928 – 31 May 2004) was a South African novelist, poet, editor, critic, essayist and publisher. He was born in Johannesburg, where he lived his entire life. He was born with cerebral palsy and had to use a wheelchai ...

. The title of the book is explained by an image in a poem with the same title: :I am the drum on your dormant soul,
cut from the black hide of a sacrificial cow. :I am the spirit of your ancestors. . .

Assessment of his work

Mtshali's work was popular among white liberals in South Africa, which may have made him less of an icon for other black poets. In a 1978 interview, the poet

Keorapetse Kgositsile Keorapetse William Kgositsile (19 September 1938 – 3 January 2018), also known by his pen name Bra Willie, was a South African Tswana poet, journalist and political activist. An influential member of the African National Congress in the 1960 ...

compares Mtshali's case to the Harlem Renaissance in the United States, a period when the importance of white patronage for black work made the emerging black literature more politically complex. Other critics have praised Mtshali's documentation of the struggle of apartheid; poet Dike Okoro (who was born in 1975, and perhaps has a different generational perspective from Kgosistsile's) has said, "Mtshali stands out for the role of addressing oppression and its effects. . . fear as an element of craft and theme predominates." Mtshali's second book, ''Fireflames'' (1980), is far more militant, often expressly promising revolution. Mitshali’s poems are about the people and their life in a hostile society which he is a part of.

Educator

After his success as a poet, Mtshali became an educator. He was vice-principal of Pace College, a commercial school in Soweto.Chisholm, Linda. "Redefining Skills: Black Education in South Africa in the 1980s" (''Comparative Education,'' Vol. 19, No. 3.

983 Year 983 ( CMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Summer – Diet of Verona: Emperor Otto II (the Red) declares war against the Byza ...

357-371), 364. He taught at the

New York City College of Technology The New York City College of Technology (City Tech) is a public college in New York City. Founded in 1946, it is the City University of New York's college of technology. History City Tech was founded in 1946 as The New York State Institute of ...

Notes

External links

"Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali"
Encyclopædia Britannica. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mtshali, Oswald Mbuyiseni 20th-century South African poets 1940 births Living people International Writing Program alumni South African male poets 20th-century South African male writers