For nearly a decade Nontsizi Mgqwetho contributed poetry to a Johannesburg newspaper, Umteteli wa Bantu, the first and only female poet to produce a substantial body of work in isiXhosa. Apart from what is revealed in these writings, very little is known about her life. She explodes on the scene with her swaggering, urgent, confrontational woman’s poetry on 23 October 1920, sends poems to the newspaper regularly throughout the three years from 1924 to 1926, withdraws for two years until two final poems appear in December 1928 and January 1929, then disappears into the shrouding silence she first burst from. Nothing more is heard from her, but the poetry she left immediately claims for her the status of one of the greatest literary artists ever to write in isiXhosa, an anguished voice of an urban woman confronting male dominance, ineffective leadership, black apathy, white malice and indifference, economic exploitation and a tragic history of nineteenth-century territorial and cultural dispossession. The Nation’s Bounty contains the original poems alongside English translations by Jeff Opland. It was the first of a number of new titles planned for release in the African Treasury Series, a premier collection of texts by South Africa’s pioneers of African literature and written in indigenous languages. First published by Wits University Press in the 1940s, the series provided a voice for the voiceless and celebrated African culture, history and heritage. It continues to make a contribution by supporting current efforts to empower and develop the status of African languages in South Africa.

Iimbali Zamandulo – ‘Stories of the Past’– is a selection of historical testimonies produced by Xhosa-speaking residents of the Eastern Cape between 1838 and 1910. These narratives offer fresh insights into the history of the Xhosa-speaking peoples, providing their own perspectives on their own past. The volume contains recollections reaching back to seventeenth-century dynastic disputes, to a period preceding the southward migrations in the early nineteenth century into territories settled by Xhosa-speaking peoples. It passes on through those migrations, the clashes and resettlement of peoples and of individuals, the contest for land throughout the century, and on to the struggle for social control and the assertion of cultural identity by the century’s end. To a remarkable extent, we are lent intimate access here to the lives of ordinary people, seeking better pastures for themselves, their families and their livestock; hunting, fighting and, above all, confronting personal conflict in their choices between mission Christianity and ancestral beliefs; between support for their chiefs or the colonial authorities; between active or passive resistance to encroachment on their territory; and between colonial distortions purveyed in the schools and their receding grasp of their own sustaining histories.

Samuel Edward Krune Mqhayi (1875–1945) was born in the Eastern Cape. He was educated formally at Lovedale, but absorbed the traditions of his people under his grandfather's uncle Nzanzana in rural Centane. Under the patronage of Walter Benson Rubusana, he taught in and near East London, and at Lovedale, and helped to edit two local newspapers, Izwi labantu and Imvo zabantsundu before retiring to devote himself to social upliftment schemes, to writing and translating. Prominent in literary, educational and political circles, Mqhayi was familiar with many of the leading African intellectuals of the previous generation. S E K. Mqhayi is one of the figures in the history of South African literature, yet his achievement is not fully appreciated because he wrote only in isiXhosa. He was the greatest of all isiXhosa praise poets, whose concern with all the people of South Africa earned him the title Imbongi yesizwe jikelele, `The poet of the whole nation’. A few of his published works are among the most popular in the isiXhosa language, yet many more are out of print, obscure, unpublished or lost. Abantu Besizwe, The nation’s people, the first new volume of Mqhayi’s writing to appear in over sixty years, is the twenty-third volume in Wits University Press’s African Treasury Series. It contains sixty-nine historical and biographical essays contributed to newspapers between 1902 and 1944 as originally published, with facing English translations. The essays, many of them enhanced by Mqhayi’s incomparable poetry, present South African personalities and events ranging from the early nineteenth to the mid twentieth century, recording climactic battles and intimate conversations, the growth of national movements and the lives of lifelong friends. Here you will find Mqhayi's humane and incisive portraits of men and women, royalty and commoners, the great and the obscure, black and white, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sesotho and Setswana. This collection of largely unrecognised material will necessitate a reassessment of the history of the isiXhosa-speaking peoples, establish Mqhayi's reputation as a significant South African historian, and confirm his status as a major South African author.

Samuel Edward Krune Mqhayi (1875–1945) was the most prominent South African imbongi of his day, a Xhosa oral poet who declaimed his impromptu poetry on occasions of significance to his people. The author of numerous works of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, biography, autobiography and translation, Mqhayi’s contributions to Xhosa-language newspapers remains unparalleled in scope and volume. This book reclaims and assembles a chronological sequence of Mqhayi’s occasional poems, for the most part now unknown – 60 poems celebrating significant events in the calendar, on occasions of national or international importance. They constitute Iziganeko zesizwe, a chronicle of the nation, between 1900 and 1943: poetic responses to events from the perspective of the greatest figure in Xhosa literature. Wars feature prominently in these occasional poems – the Boer War, the First World War, the invasion of Abyssinia, the Second World War – as do political deputations to England, visits from British princes and the death of British kings, the appearance of Halley’s Comet and meetings with Ministers of State. Running through the collection is Mqhayi’s proud and fierce determination to maintain an identity rooted in custom and history in the face of territorial dispossession, the loss of title deeds and the vote, and the steady erosion of human rights. Throughout these years, Mqhayi remained constant in offering praise and encouragement to his people, in celebrating their achievements, and in expressing Christian consolation and an unflinching faith in the future liberation of South Africa’s black population from foreign control.

Xhosa Literature: Spoken and Printed Words consists of fourteen essays addressing Xhosa literature in three media – the spoken word, newspapers and books. Literary critics tend to focus on Xhosa literature published in books; some attention has been paid to Xhosa oral poetry and tales, but by and large the contribution of newspapers to the development of Xhosa literature has been overlooked. This book explores aspects of Xhosa literature in all three media, and their interconnections. Six of the essays treat historical narratives (amabali) and praise poetry (izibongo), setting out the social and ritual function of poetry and the poet (imbongi), mapping changes in the izibongo of three poets as South Africa moved towards democracy in the 1990s, and analysing recordings of two poems recited by S.E.K. Mqhayi. Three essays are devoted to the first Xhosa novel, Mqhayi’s U-Samson (1907), to the publication of the greatest novel in Xhosa, A.C. Jordan’s Ingqumbo yeminyanya (1940), and to the first published poem in praise of Nelson Mandela, D.L.P. Yali-Manisi’s `UNkosi Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela’ (1954). There follow accounts of Xhosa literature in the nineteenth century and the appropriation of the press by Xhosa editors towards the end of that century, of Nontsizi Mgqwetho’s fiery poetry published in Umteteli wa Bantu and of poems by Mgqwetho and Mqhayi published in Abantu-Batho, two Johannesburg newspapers. The volume concludes with an exposition of an imaginative response to David Yali-Manisi and his poetry.

Robert Godfrey’s major contribution to Xhosa-language studies is his revised and expanded edition, published in 1915, of Albert Kropf’s classic Kafir-English Dictionary (1899). As a member of the staff of the Blythswood Institution, Godfrey edited the Blythswood Review, and in 1924, in preparation for a third edition of the Dictionary, he commenced an extended series of articles under the title Lexicography. Through these columns he invited his readers to supply him with the Xhosa names for birds and animals. The scope and range of the articles expanded, and he increasingly incorporated into his column quotations from pupils’ essays on Xhosa lore and language. Selections from these articles comprise Godfrey’s Bird-lore of the Eastern Cape Province (1941), now long out of print, and an article that Godfrey wrote on John Bennie (1934), but the articles as originally printed and as assembled here contain considerably more information, on a wider range of topics, and demonstrate the development of his knowledge. Godfrey’s contributions to the Blythswood Review contain invaluable knowledge on aspects of the domestic lives and language of the Xhosa-speaking peoples, much of it expressed in the Xhosa words of his informants, information on proverbs and riddles and taboos, on children’s games and bird-lore, on hlonipha words and the Xhosa words for flora and fauna, on the months of the year and place names, on Xhosa grammmar and the linguistic achievements of John Bennie, whose transcription of the Xhosa language became the earliest standard spelling system. Also included in this volume is an extensive collated list of lexical definitions intended for inclusion in the third edition of the Dictionary, which in the event was never published. Altogether, this collection of Godfrey’s articles constitutes a significant source of information on the folklore of the Xhosa-speaking peoples and the state of their language in the early decades of the twentieth century.

William Wellington Gqoba (1840–88) was prominent among the African intellectuals emerging in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa towards the end of the nineteenth century. By trade he was a wagonmaker, licensed preacher of the Free church of Scotland, teacher, historian, poet, folklorist and editor. For much of his brief life he served on mission stations as a catechist, and ended his career as editor of the Lovedale newspaper Isigidimi sama-Xosa, to which he contrived to contribute subversive poetry outspokenly critical of Western education, the European administration of black people and the discrimination suffered by colonised blacks. Gqoba fashioned the figure of the Xhosa man of letters. Unrivalled in his time in the generic range of his writing, he was the author of letters, anecdotes, expositions of proverbs, histories and poetry, including two poems in the form of debates that stood for over fifty years as the longest poems in the Xhosa language. This book assembles and translates into English all of William Wellington Gqoba’s clearly identifiable writings. They offer an insider’s perspective on an African nation in transition, adapting uncomfortably to Western mores and morality, seeking to affirm its identity by drawing on its past, standing on the brink of mobilisation to resist white control and to construct its social, political and religious independence of European colonialism.

The Xhosa-speaking peoples who settled along the south-eastern seaboard of South Africa promoted traditions of praise poetry (izibongo), poetry produced orally by men and women, adults and children, about people, clans, ancestors and animals. Throughout the nineteenth century, authors who used the Xhosa language gradually developed the craft of composing poetry for publication in newspapers, and expanded this process in the twentieth century, when books containing secular literature appeared, but the practice of oral poetry persists, flourishing now as it did before the incursion of colonial settlers. The dominant poet in the community is the imbongi, who continues to produce poetry praising or criticising figures of authority on occasions of local and national significance. Xhosa Poets and Poetry (Iimbongi nezibongo) contains fourteen essays originally published between 1974 and 1996. Based on fieldwork conducted between 1969 and 1985, and on extensive archival research, the first six essays examine the social function of poetry in the community, the element of improvisation in the production of poetry, especially in the poetry of the imbongi, and the structural principles of his poetry. Individual poets are then presented, among them D.L.P. Yali-Manisi, Melikaya Mbutuma, Peter Mtuze and Nontsizi Mgqwetho, the first woman to produce a substantial body of poetry. The concluding four essays are thematic, treating issues introduced by the medium of print: the role of newspapers in fostering literature; censorship and control of the press; the damaging effects of changes in Xhosa spelling and the demand for books for school prescription; and, finally, the suspicion in which Xhosa poets held books and writing. This second edition updates the bibliographical references and amplifies some of the arguments. Xhosa Poets and Poetry offers a keen engagement with its subject, enlivened by extracts from conversations with poets and copious examples of their poetry in Xhosa and in English translation. It offers a cultural context for the volumes in this series.

This much-awaited volume uncovers the long-lost pages of the major African multi-lingual newspaper, "Abantu-Batho." Founded in 1912 by African National Congress (ANC) convener Pixley Seme, with assistance from the Swazi Queen, the paper published until 1931, and this work shows how it attracted the cream of African politicians; journalists; and poets Mqhayi, Nontsisi, and Grendon. Comprising both essays on and texts from the paper, this book explores the complex movements and individuals that emerged as the essays contribute rich, new material to provide clearer insights into South African politics and intellectual life. "The People's Paper" unveils a judicious selection of never-before-published columns, spanning every year of its life and drawn from repositories on three continents. Distinguished historians and literary scholars together with exciting young scholars plumb the lives and ideas of editors, writers, readers and allied movements. Sharing the considerable interest in the ANC centenary, this unique book will have a strong appeal and secure audience among all interested in history, politics, culture, literature, gender, biography, and journalism studies, from academics and students to a general public interested in knowing about this unique newspaper, its people, and the stories that once captivated South Africans.

For 40 years, between 1900 and 1939, John Solilo (1864-1940) was a prolific contributor to Xhosa-language newspapers under his own name and under the pseudonyms Mde-ngelimi (Master Wordsmith) and Kwanguye (It's Still Him). He submitted letters and articles on a variety of issues, local news reports from Cradock and Uitenhage, and a considerable body of poetry. Solilo's major literary contribution was his collection of poems entitled Izala, published in 1925, the earliest volume of poetry by a single author in the history of Xhosa literature. His poetry was inspired by umoya wembongi, the spirit of the imbongi, the praise poet whose stirring declamations roused his audiences to action or contemplation. Solilo's literary reputation today, however, is at variance with his prominence as a major author in the first four decades of the twentieth century: he is hardly mentioned, if at all, by literary historians. That neglect is perhaps not surprising: Izala has long been out of print, and copies can no longer be located. The present volume is therefore an exercise in reclamation and restitution. In restoring to the public domain the 65 poems that made up Izala and adding an additional 28 that were published in newspapers both before and after the appearance of Izala, the editors hope to revive John Solilo's reputation as a poet, and to establish his status as a pre-eminent Xhosa author.

The Xhosa-speaking peoples of south-eastern South Africa have a long tradition of oral poetry, extending back at least two hundred years. This book, first published in 1983, was the first detailed study of that tradition. Jeff Opland has assembled a large corpus of Xhosa oral poetry making his the first analysis of an active South African oral poetic tradition to be based on actual fieldwork. The book focuses in particular on the poetry produced by the imbongi, or court poet, and Professor Opland examines the poetry and careers of four such individuals. He describes the imbongi's informal training, the diction of his poetry and its improvisational character and the relationship of the poet to the chief and the community, revealing that the role of the poetry is essentially political. He also considers the nature of the poetry in relation to ritual. His discussion of Xhosa poetry in relation to theoretical constructs of oral poetry and of oral mental processes is an important contribution to the debate about the nature and distinctiveness of 'oral literature'. With its interdisciplinary approach, it will appeal to readers from many disciplines as well as to general readers interested in African culture.