Mazisi Kunene

Mazisi (Raymond) Kunene (12 May 1930 – 11 August 2006) was a South African poet best known for his translation of the epic Zulu poem Emperor Shaka the Great. While in exile from South Africa's apartheid regime, Kunene was an active supporter and organiser of the anti-apartheid movement in Europe and Africa. He later taught at the University of California, Los Angeles, and become Africa's and South Africa's first poet laureate.

Kunene was born in Durban in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, to Eva Kunene (nee Ngcobo), a teacher, and Mdabuli Albert Kunene, a labourer. From very early in his childhood at Amahlongwa on the south coast of Durban, he began writing poetry and short stories in Zulu, and by the age of 11 he was being published in local papers. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Natal in Zulu and history, and later a Master of Arts in Zulu Poetry. His Master's thesis was titled An Analytical Survey of Zulu Poetry, Both Traditional and Modern. In it Kunene criticized the changing nature of Zulu literature, and its emulation of the Western tradition. He won a Bantu Literary Competition in 1956 and left for London, England, to study at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, in 1959.