Mazisi Kunene

Literature, Activism, and African Worldview

Dike Okoro author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Published:14th Dec '22

Should be back in stock very soon

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Mazisi Kunene cover

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.

"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

ISBN: 9781032286563

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 380g

130 pages